XYI. 
THE HABITS AND ECONOMY OF OTTR SOCIAL WASPS. 
Ey F. AIatjle Campbell, E.L.S., E.Z.S., E.R.M.S. 
Bead at Hertford, 2nd December , 1886. 
The relations of the wasps, social and solitary, are very inter¬ 
esting, for naturalists place them in the order Hymenoptera, 
together with the bees, ants, sawflies, and gallflies. This order 
is divided into two sections. The first consists of insects the 
females of which are furnished with saws, augers, or other boring 
instruments, with which they prepare holes to receive their eggs. 
The second section consists of insects the females of which are 
furnished with a venomous sting. But this section is a large one, 
and is subdivided again into two subsections, of which the bees 
form one. The other subsection comprises the predaceous stinging 
Hymenoptera, and includes the proverbially hard-working ants, the 
solitary wasps, and the social wasps. The technical character by 
which these two groups of wasps are distinguished is found chiefly 
in the tarsal claws, which are cleft in the solitary wasps, and 
single in the social, while the physiological differences are very 
obvious. The solitary wasps consist only of males and females, 
hut the social wasps, like the social bees and ants, consist of males, 
females, and neuters. The solitary wasps, as the name implies, do 
not live in communities in which there are mutual obligations and 
responsibilities. The mother solitary wasp makes a ,nest in a 
cavity in sand, herbaceous plants, or trees, according to its species, 
and conveys there a store of insects and spiders-—dead, or stung to 
torpidity. She concludes her maternal duties by enclosing a portion 
in each cell. 
There are in the United Kingdom hut seven kinds of social 
wasps or Yespidse, including the hornet, which is one of our wasps. 
It will therefore be understood that when I speak of the habits 
and life-history of wasps, my observations apply also to hornets. 
But before we go further it would he as well to touch upon the 
difference between wasps and bees. Bees procure their food from 
flowers, hut wasps occasionally take sweets, although their chief 
food consists of insects. The flattened spreading form of the first 
tarsal joint of the hind-leg of a bee is, we all know, associated 
with its pollen-carrying habits, and this peculiarity in a greater 
or less degree is found in all bees. Even the parasitic bees, i.e. 
those which act the part of cuckoos in laying their eggs in the 
nests of their neighbours, are no exception; for, although their 
first hind tarsal joint is smaller than that of other bees, it is still 
broader than that of the predaceous wasps, which is cylindrical. 
There is a further distinction between bees and true wasps, for 
the fore-wings of the wasps when at rest are folded longitudinally, 
which is not the case with those of the bees. 
