COLORATION IN POLISTES. 69 



detail. Madagascar is of interest in possessing a form which resembles 

 ca?iadcnsis, but has a smaller head. 



Distribution in Austraua and the East Indies. 



Australia possesses ajirifer, pallipcs, and the transitional vetsicolor, 

 but I have been able to learn nothing further of the relation of these 

 three species. The types of the East Indies have the same relation to 

 the Polistes of Japan as do those of the Antilles to Florida and the 

 Atlantic Sta-tes. There is the same predominance of the smaller forms 

 marked with red-brown and yellow, and also the occurrence of a large 

 reddish-brown carnifex with suffused yellow borders. 



We may sum up the features of the geographical distribution of the 

 genus, so far as we have been able to determine them, as follows : 

 The southern extension of the eastern and western continents each 

 possesses two great classes of forms, one which may be designated 

 as belonging to the canadeyisis type, the other including a series of 

 forms which in their coloring and pattern range from the mode of 

 aurifcr to that of caroli?uis, with a prevailing condition distinctly be- 

 tween the two. These classes appear to be fairly well separated in 

 point of size as well as color pattern. The}^ extend northward to a 

 varying degree. The former is the more limited both in its range 

 and its number of species ; on the northern hemisphere it does not 

 extend far beyond the thirty-fifth parallel. The latter ranges about 

 20 degrees farther northward, and is represented by a great number of 

 species, which differ both in size and coloration. 



Along the opposite coasts of the two continents we observe for the 

 latter class two distinct trends of development ; the one along the east- 

 ern coast verging toward a red-brown form with colors tending toward 

 suffusion, the other along the western coasts toward black and yellow 

 coloration with sharply delineated areas. Both exhibit increasing 

 melanism as we pass northward. These points are represented graph- 

 icallv in Plate VI. 



