494 



Description of a new British Wasp, 



Kirby, and, as such, published in the British catalogues; 

 and that it must necessarily also supersede WesmaePs sub- 

 generic name O'plopus, which I regret, as it is characteristic 

 of one sex of the majority of the species hitherto recorded. 

 But, in pursuance of the principles I have already avowed 

 myself in this Magazine as advocating, I am constrained to this 

 course, which, besides, I consider pregnant with advantage 

 to all branches of descriptive and systematic natural history, 

 and the only mode of reducing to strict order the existing 

 confusion; but to effect this the synonymy must be worked 

 out with indefatigable patience, and an unflinching regard to 

 priority of nomenclature. In furtherance of this object, my 

 view is, that, where no distinct type of a genus is indicated, we 

 must absolutely take the first species named, and consider it 

 as the type to which the generic name must adhere, howso- 

 ever much the species classed with it may be subsequently 

 separated : and to obtain this, as I have formerly said, it 

 would not be convenient to go further back for priority of 

 nomenclature than the invention and application of trivial 

 names by Linnaeus, which forms so marked an epoch in the 

 systematic treatment of natural history. 



The following is a brief characteristic of the three 

 groups : — 



I. Dorsal Surface of the first Segment of the Abdomen consisting of hut one 



Piece. 



"1. Odyne^rus Latr. 



Type, V. muraria <j> Latr. 

 $ V. spf nipes L. 

 (Epipone Kirby, Steph., Curt. 

 O'plopus Wesm.) 



Last joints of the antennae of 

 the male rolled spirally. 



II. Dorsal Surface of the first Segment of the Abdomen formed of two Pieces, 

 united together by a transverse Surface. 



The sides of the posterior 

 face of the metathorax pro- 

 jecting angularly. The last 

 joint of the antennas of the 

 male forming a hook. 



2. Ancistro'cerus Wesm. 

 (Odynerus Latr., Curt., Steph.) 



the Ve'spa Tatua of Cuvier, Polistes morio of Fabricius, as the type. This 

 insect somewhat resembles in habit what is called in the British lists 

 Eumenes, but from which it essentially differs, in being social in its 

 habits ; the male, also, is not furnished with a hook at the extremity of its 

 antennas, if, with Latreille, we may consider the Polistes cyanea Fab. as 

 congeneric, but which St. Fargeau does not treat as such in his work on the 

 Hymenoptera (Suites a Buffon), and who alters the name to Epipona. At 

 all events, Kirby's MS. name must have given way to that of Odynerus, 

 which I have shown in the text to be most correctly applied to the Vespa 

 spinipes, and the insect I am about to describe. 



