30 NESTS AND HABITS OF AUSTRALIAN VESPID^ AND LARRID.E, 



This wasp is recorded from Tasmania and Australia ; I have 

 specimens from the neighbourhood of Sydney, and Wellington, 

 N.S.W. 



The nest from which my specimens were bred was given to me 

 by Mr. Thos. Whitelegge of the Australian Museum. 



IcARiA GREGARiA, Saussure, Ent. Zeit. Stettin, xxiii. p. 137 (1862), 



This wasp is much smaller than those of the genus Polistes, and 

 is easily distinguished from them by having the apical segments 

 of the abdomen telescopic and retracted into each other, while the 

 former have smooth cylindrical sharply pointed abdomens. 



This species is five lines in length ; ferruginous with touches of 

 reddish-yellow on the sides of the thorax, the first joint of the 

 abdomen very slender, the remaining segments chocolate-brown 

 with a beautiful opaline sheen ; the wings large, semi-opaque, 

 with reddish nervures. 



The nests are formed of a stouter and stiffer substance than 

 those of Polistes, and are always much longer than broad and 

 irregular in form. About Sydney I have always found them 

 built among the prickly twigs of Busaria spinosa, with the excep- 

 tion of one found under a cliff attached to the rock. An average 

 well-shaped nest is about 4 inches in length by 1^ inches wide, 

 and contains about 300 hexagonal cells, 5 lines in depth by 1| 

 lines in diameter. Though these nests are often so elongated, 

 they are usually only attached to the twigs by one pedicle. The 

 eggs and larvse are attended to in the same manner as those of 

 Polistes. 



This species is rather common about Sydney and out in the 

 •western country ; I have also received specimens of it from the 

 Eev. T. Blackburn of Adelaide, taken by him on the Australian 

 Alps (Victoria) at an altitude of 3000 feet. 



Polistes tasmaniensis, Sauss., Mon. Guepes Sociales, p. 66, 23, 

 t. 6, f. 5. 

 This wasp is 6^ lines in length, generally of a uniform rusty 

 reddish colour, with the antennae, legs, and sides of prothorax dull 



