TEXAN HYMENOPTERA. 245 



posterior tibiae, whitish ; abdomen strongly sericeous with whitish pile, densely 

 rather coarsely punctured; first segment rather small, campanulate, rounded 

 at base, ferruginous, blackish at base, apex broadly yellowish-white ; second 

 segment black with a large ferruginous blotch on each side, obscurely conflu- 

 ent on disk, apex broadly yellowish-white, squarely indented on each side of 

 middle; remaining segments blackish, margined at apex with whitish; venter 

 black, second segment stained laterally with reddish and margined at apex 

 with whitish, remaining segments, except last, with a whitish lateral spot. 

 Length .40 inch. 



£. — Clypeus white with a minute median black dot, covered entirely with 

 a bright silvery pile; antennas long, thickened toward tips, fuscous above, 

 scape yellow beneath, flagellum fulvous beneath, the extreme apex fulvous, 

 and slightly hooked ; abdomen more slender than in 9 > without any ferrugi- 

 nous coloring, with white apical bands as in 9 > the second segment having on 

 each side about midway a rounded white spot. Length .38 inch. 



Three specimens. (Belf'rage.) 



VESPID^E. 



Polistes canadensis. 



Vespa canadensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 952. 

 Three % 9 specimens. (Belfrage.) 



Polistes rubiginosus. 



Polistes rubiginosus, St. Farg. Hym. i., p. 524. 

 Fifteen % 9 specimens. (Belfrage; Boll; Heiligbrodt.) 



Polistes perplexus, n. sp. 



% . — Ferruginous, strongly golden sericeous ; face and clypeus flat, dull yel- 

 lowish-while, pale on orbits and above insertion of antennae; mandibles and 

 cheeks beneath more or less dull yellowish-white; antennae ferruginous, paler 

 at base beneath, the joints above more or less black, especially those at apex; 

 collar more or less black, prothorax generally narrowly margined with pale 

 yellow; mesothorax black, with two central, longitudinal, more or less dis- 

 tinct ferruginous lines; scutellum sometimes divided centrally by a black 

 line; metathorax with a broad deep longitudinal groove, finely and trans- 

 versely aciculated, ferruginous, generally with three longitudinal black lines 

 which are sometimes subobsolete, sometimes the metathorax is entirely ferru- 

 ginous excepting the groove which is always black, sometimes entirely black 

 excepting a spot on flanks and a stripe on each side of the groove ; pleura gen- 

 erally yellowish beneath, more or less black laterally; wings fuscous, darker 

 along costa and in marginal cell, second and third submarginals with subhya- 

 line streaks ; legs ferruginous, the four anterior coxae, femora and tibiae beneath 

 more or less pale yellowish, all the coxae more or less black above ; abdomen 

 of different shades of ferruginous, strongly golden sericeous, the three basal 

 segments have frequently a more or less distinct narrow yellow apical margin, 

 the base of second, third and fourth segments more or less broadly black 

 sometimes obsoletely so, sometimes only the second, or third, or fourth are so 

 marked; ventral segments more or less marked with black at base, the inter- 

 mediate segments sometimes banded with yellow. Length .75— .85 inch. 



