September, 1903. 221 



THE RKI.ATIONSHIP OF VKSPA AUSTRIACA TO 



VKSPA RUFA. 



by geo. h. carpenter, b.sc, m.r.i. a., 

 and denis r. pack-berespord, d.i,. 



[Pirate 2.] 

 If the naturalist in Ireland must be content with a somewhat 

 poorer fauna for his studies than his colleagues in Great 

 Britain have at their disposal, he can congratulate himself on 

 being able to find, often in large numbers, species of animals 

 that are iincommon across St. George's Channel. Of par- 

 ticular interest among these is the wasp Vespa atishiaca,which 

 until the last few years was considered one of the rarest insects 

 in the Britannic fauna. First described as a British wasp by 

 Smith ('43) under the name of F. borealis, it was later re- 

 named' by him V. arborea ('49 and '58), on. account of the fact 

 that the specimens first captured in Scotland and near Wake- 

 field in Yorkshire were believed to build nests in fir-trees. 

 Subsequently the species was found very sparingly in other 

 English localities — Gloucestershire and Cheshire (Ormerod, 

 '68 ; Saunders, '96A), in North Wales (Gardner, '94 ; Nevinson, 

 '00) ; in the Clyde and Forth districts of Scotland (Cameron, 

 '75 ; Evans, '00; Malloch, '00, '01); and its identity with the 

 continental species known as V. ajist7'iaca, Panzer, was re- 

 cognised (Andre, '84). Though both male and queen of the 

 species are known to continental entomologists, workers 

 certainly referable to it have never been found. Smith, how- 

 ever, took, in company with the original queen-types of his 

 V. arborea, a peculiar worker-wasp, which he was disposed to 

 refer to the same species. Smith must have taken males also 

 between 1858 and 1868, since both that sex and the supposed 

 worker are figured, from specimens supplied by him, in 

 Ormerod's work, published in the latter year. Then for many 

 years the male of Vespa atcstriaca was overlooked in Great 

 Britain until the Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, obtained a single 



1 Because the uame V. borealis had already been applied by Kirby to a 

 North American wasp. 



