Fig. 1.

Obfervations

a hundred Perch or Rod, (if it be more, it will still be more exact, because the Angle will not be fo acute) then he takes out another Bee and lets him go, obferving his Course alfo very carefully, for he being loaded will, as the firft, (after he is mounted a convenient height) fly directly to the Hive; this fecond Courfe, (as I muft call it) the Hunter finds to be South, 54 Degrees Weft; then there remains nothing but to find out where the two Courfes interfect, or, which is the fame thing, the Distance from B to A, or from C to A, as in the Figure, for there the Honey-Tree is.

For which Reafon, if the Courfe of the fecond Bee from C had been South west, and by South, viz. to D, then the Hive-Tree must have been there, for there the Lines are found to interfect.

I cannot difmifs this Subject, without acquainting you, that all the Bees we have in our Gardens, or Woods, and which now are in great numbers, are the produce of fuch as were brought in Hives from England near a hundred Years ago, and not the natural produce of this part of America; for the first Planters of New England never observed a Bee in the Woods, until many Years after the Country was fettled; but that which proves it beyond question is, that the Aborigines have no word in their Language for a Bee, as they have for all Animals whatfoever proper to, or aboriginally of, the Country, and therefore for many Years called a Bee by the name of English-Man's Fly.

I will mention another thing with refpect to Bees, tho' I do not know but it may have been commonly obferved; and that is, when they swarm they never go to the Northward, but move Southward, or inclining that way.

I fhould have taken notice in the proper place, that when one Bee goes home from the Sugar-plate, he returns with a confiderable number from the Hive.

II. In the Beginning of July 1723, being on the Top of our Colleabout Walps, giate Chapel in Windfor Castle, I obferved a Clufter of three Wasps and the Diffe clofely embracing each other; one of which was a large Female rence of their Wafp, the other two of a leffer fort. Soon after, I found eight or Sexes. By the Rev. Mr Der- ten Wafps clofely hanging together, and divers other fuch like Parcels. ham, F. R. S. In the midst of all which was conftantly a Queen Wasp, and only one; the reft being always of a different Sort from either the Queen or the common Wafps; which gave me a Sufpicion of their being Male and Female. And therefore examining another Company of them with greater Strictness, I found the Queen Wafp, in coitu, with one of the other Wafps, fo closely joined Tail to Tail, that it was fome Time before they were parted.

No. 382. P.

53.

After this I caught all the Wafps I could, on the top of our Chapel, but could not fee one of the common labouring Wasps among them; but all were for the moft part Male Wafps, with now and then a Queen, or Female, among them, and the generally in

coitu.

And

The Courfe of the 20 Bees flying and the distance to be one Hundred fixty two t.

Fig. 1

Plate I.Vol VII. part III. page 404.

at the Hunter lets a fecond Bee fly or more if necessary) and obferves the Course of their flight and finds it to be South 54 degrees Weft.

The offset of one hundred Rods North

stands and having with his sugar &c procured one or more the Courfe of the firft Bee & finds it to be due Weft

inter is not satiffied of the Courfes of either first or second ht of one Bee, he lets more fly until he is very certain.

And now from this Hiftory of my Obfervation, it appears, That there are three forts of Wafps; The Queens, or Females; the Kings, or Males; and the common Labouring Wafps; each of them very diftinct.

The Queen, or Female Wafp (by many called the King-Wafp) is much longer in the Body, and larger than any other Wafp.

The Male Wafps are leffer than the Queens, but as much longer and larger than the common Wafps, as the Queen is longer and larger than these. These Males alfo have no Stings, which the Queens and common Wafps all have. And these are thofe which Moufet faith Authors call 'Axles, and take to be Females, although he is of another Opinion, imagining all Wafps to have Stings; upon his examining a Wafp's Neft, at Ham, Anno 1587. in which he found no Wafps without a Sting. But I wonder how that curious Enquirer miffed of thefe fting-lefs Male Wafps. Surely he was too hafty in his Examination, and not being aware of the difference, he thought the Males (which are but few in number to the labouring Wafps) were the fame and had Stings as well as the reft; or elfe he made his Enquiry at a Time when perhaps the Males had deferted the Neft, which probably they may do, as the Male or Drone-Bees are forced to do: or else the Year 1587. (in which Moufet made his Obfervation) might produce fewer Wafps, at leaft fewer Male Wafps, than this laft Summer, of 1723, did, in which I made my Obfervation; which was obferved to have a greater abundance of Wasp Nefts than hath been known in many Years. And in all the Nefts that I fearched into, I conftantly found Male Wafps, either many or few, according to the Size of the Neft, and Number of Wafps. And the Part of the Neft where these Males are bred, or at least where I found them moft to refide, was chiefly the two uppermoft Cells, or Partings, between the Combs,

but one.

Another thing by which the Male Wafps, may be known from the reft, is their Antenna, or Horns; which are longer and larger than either thofe of the Queen, or common Wafps; and with them they feem, in running, to feel more than the others do.

But the chief Difference, is in the Parts of Generation of these Male Wafps, quite different from other Wafps. I diffected them with all Care, and fhall defcribe them, as well as I can, without Figures, which I could not get drawn.

For the Discovery of these Parts, if the Alvus be preffed, an Horny or Shell-like Part will be thruft out, of a fhining black Colour, which confifts of two Parts, fomewhat refembling the Caftagnets ufed in Dancing; at the extreme Part of each of which grows a Hook, fomewhat like thofe of the Earwig's Tail, but much lefs; in the Middle, between these Hooks, appear three Parts, the middlemost of which is a stiff brown Tube, very curiously made, with the Forepart like a Spoon or Ladle, and the other End (within the Body) is

A 2

neatly

neatly branched and braced to each Side within the two Shells I fpake of. A little above which Branching, is a quation or Swelling, like that of a Dog's Pizzle, and perhaps ferves for the fame Ufe, if this Tube is (as I imagine) the Penis of the Wafp.

On each Side this Penis, lies a stiff Part (in Number two) branched at the Top with fomewhat like Hairs, giving them the Refemblance of Brushes. At the Bottom of which are two curious black Cells, with an Opening on one Side like that of the Concha Veneris, with fmall whitish Hairs growing on one Edge thereof. What the Ufe of these two Brush-like Members may be, I know not, unless it be to ftrengthen and fupport, or direct, the Penis in coitu, or provoke therein.

Behind all these Parts, more within the Body lies a long contorted white Veel; which at first I took to be the real Penis, penetrating the Ladle-like Tube I fpake of. But upon farther Examination, I rather take it to be the Spermatic Veffel.

As to the Ufe of the two little Hooks I mentioned at the End of the Uropygium, or Shells, I take them to be, to catch hold of the Female's Podex, and to direct and affift the Penetration of the Penis in coitu.

*

As for the Parts of Generation in the Queen, or Female Wafp, nothing was to be feen fo remarkable as in the Male; but thofe Parts are very like what we fee in the common Labouring Wafps: Indeed, with the most accurate Obfervations I could make with my Microf copes, I could not perceive any Difference at all. For which Reafon I fuppofe it is that most of the Writers upon Wafps and Bees, have been very confused and wavering about the Sexes of thefe two Tribes of Infects. It would be endlefs to cite the Authors and their Opinions, especially concerning the Bee Tribe. I think Swammerdam (who as he was one of the firft that rejected Equivocal Generation, fo was one of the moft judicious Writers of Infects) that his Opinion, I fay, is the moft juft, viz. That of Bees, there are three Sorts, viz. 1. Rex, aut veriùs Regina, fiquidem fequioris fexus eft. 2. Fuci, qui Mafculi proprie funt. 3. Apes Operariæ, quarum Sexum diftinguere non poffumus, cùm in iis nec Mafculas nec Feminas partes obfervemus: quæ perbellè diftinguuntur in Fucis feu Regibus, & Reginis, quæ tralatitio errore Reges folent falutari. In Reginis certè invenimus Ovarium apud incomparabilem illum Anatomum Joh. van Horne, &c.

There is a Story seriously told by Moufet †, that deferves our Obfervation, viz. That in the Year 1582, being on the highest Ridges of the Cartmel Hills, (I fuppofe in Lancashire) he faw among the Rocks two Species of Wafps defperately fighting: That they differed only in Magnitude; that the larger trufted to their Strength; and the leffer to their Numbers, there being fix of the leffer engaged against only one of the larger

* Swam. Hift. Infect. p. 92.

2

Moufet Theat. Infect. 1. 1. c. 8. fize,