Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/194

166 figs. a, c and f, taken from the same nest, which was found under the roof of a house: and in another instance the varieties b, f and c, from a second nest dug out of a bank. In the month of November I dug up a nest, and in it found thirteen females in a half-torpid state, collected together at the bottom; the individuals c and d were of this number.

It has been stated that there is a difference in the materials of which the nests are composed; that some nests are smaller than others, and of a more delicate texture. As regards size, I am aware that nests are not always found of the same dimensions, even in the autumn; neither are all the societies equally numerous in individuals. The differences in the texture of the nests arise, no doubt, partly from the nature of the wood used in their construction, and partly from the situation in which they are found. For although the ordinary situation for the nest of V. vulgaris is in the ground, yet it sometimes builds in outhouses, &c.; and I once found a nest in an old wooden pump, the entrance being at the hole in which the spout had been fixed: and Mr. Westwood has specimens from a nest constructed on the rafters of a house. With regard to the material used by wasps in the construction of their nests, that is, whether collected from decayed wood or sound timber, authors have given different accounts. During the last summer my attention was particularly attracted by a number of wasps, which were engaged in scraping their material from the wooden laths in front of an arbour, in a garden at Plumstead, in Kent: this wood was quite sound and very hard, as I found on cutting off a portion which had been shaved by the wasps. Again, in Plumstead wood, I saw great numbers similarly employed on some sound, hard oak paling. Still, in both instances, the wood had been exposed to weather, and it is only the surface of sound wood which they strip, for they may be observed to shift their position frequently, as if seeking the softer parts. But I have also seen wasps collecting materials from wood in so decayed a state as to crumble in the hand; and it will be found, on examining their nests, that the outer envelopes are frequently of a very different texture from the material used in the construction of the combs. I have a specimen, in which the outer leaf-like case is so fragile as to crumble at the least touch, and still the combs are of the usual firmness. The envelopes appear to have a considerable portion of decayed wood in them, mixed with layers of a different colour and texture: this nest was found in a barn. I think it will be found that if wasps meet with suitable material near at hand, most of the community in the same nest will resort to it. I observed an in-