1903. Carpenter & Berkseord. — Vespa austriaca & V, nifa. 231 



(fig. 5), exactly like those that characterise the austriaca 

 queen, appeared, and also a male, which was a typical rufa. 

 On August 1 8th, to our great surprise, an apparently typical 

 rufa worker emerged from the upper layer of comb. This was 

 the last wasp to come out, and as there were no further 

 developments by August 31st, we killed off all the living wasps 

 and extracted all the remaining pupae from the capped cells. 

 These yielded a few more distinguishable austriaca queens 

 and drones, and also eleven ruja drones, but all of the latter 

 varied in face from the typical rufa colouring, and showed 

 more or less likeness to the austriaca type. 



The following is a complete inventory of the nest : — 



Perfect Insects. 



Queens, i austriaca (old). 



S austriaca (young). 

 Workers. 86 rufa. 

 Males. 46 austiiaca. 

 3 rufa. 

 2 rufa, approaching austriaca. 



PUP^. 



Queens. 3 austriaca. 



5 indistinguishable. 

 Males. 6 austriaca. 



II r«/a, approaching rtwj/r/ara. 



14 indistinguishable. 



Our comparative study of the structure and markings of 

 Vespa rufa and V- austriaca has convinced us that the re- 

 lationship between the two wasps is so very close that it must of 

 itself raise a doubt as to the generally accepted view of the 

 connection between the two being merely that of host and 

 inquiline. We are in complete agreement with the opinion 

 of Andre (84), that no justification whatever is afforded by 

 structural characters for the removal of V. austriaca into a 

 distinct genus. The closeness of its kinship to V. rufa may 

 be appreciated by comparing the male armature of these two 

 wasps (Plate 2, figs. 6, vi.) with the corresponding parts in a 

 Bombus, and the Psithyrus which lives as its inquiline 



