72 THE REPORT OF THE No. 19 



Amone^ the bees there are large females, small females or workers, and males or drones ; 

 so is it among the wasps ; and the male wasps are stingless as the dront s are. They may be 

 distinguished from the females in this way : — 



The male wasps have 13 joints in the antenna\ 



The female wasps have only 12. 



The male wasps have 7 abdominal segments. 



The female wasps have only 6. 



Bees, wasps and ants have the three kinds, — males, females and workers. It is customary 

 amongst naturalists to distinguish these by the astronomical signs for Mars, Venus and Mercury. 

 The sign of Mars is a shield and spear $ . That of Venus is an apple with its stalk 9 — in re- 

 ference to the golden apple awarded to her, as the most beautiful of the three goddesses (Juno, 

 Minerva and Venus), by Paris. That of Mercury, the caducens, or staff with" serpents inter- 

 twined 9 . 



Hornets and wasps are not troublesome unless they are molested. They destroy vast 

 numbers of flies and destructive larvse, spiders, etc. But, strange to say, the wasps themselves 

 fall victims to predacious flies (Asilidte) which know how to pounce down upon them, and seize 

 them, just so that they can neither use their jaws nor their stings. 



The following is a table of the Quebec Paper-making Wasps : — 



Family Vespid^. 

 Genus Vespa, Linneus. 



1. The Black Hornet, Ves/a maculata, Fabricius. 



2. The Margined Wasp, Vespa arenaria, Fabricius. 



3. The German Wasp, Vespa Germanica, Fabricius. 



4. The Diabolic Wasp, Vespa diabolica, Saussure. 

 "5. Fernald's Wasp, Vespa Fernaldi, Lewis. 



6. The Scalloped Wasp, Vespa media, Olivier. 



7. The Red Wasp, Vespa rufa, Linneus. 



8. The Common Wasp, Vespa communis, Saussure. 



9. The Northern Wasp, Fespa borealis, Kirby. 



Genus Polistes, Latreille. 

 1. The White-footed Polistes, Polistes pallipes, Lepell 



Notes. 



1. The Black Hornet (Fig. 50), is so named to distinguish 

 it from the Yellow Hornet of Europe {Vespa crabro, Linneas). 

 It is the largest and most formidable of our wasps. It is com- 

 mon and well-known. 



2. Fespa arenaria, is known to. the French Canadians by 

 the term "Guepe cousine." It is a handsome black wasp with 

 narrow, white or yellow margins to the abdominal segments. 



3. Vespa Germanica is a beautiful little wasp, and has 

 Fig. 50.— Vespa Maculata, the much yellow about it. It may be easily recognized by the 



Black Hornet. ,,,i i,- r.ii i-,/. 



yellow bands on the nrst segment of the abdomen which form a 

 loop, and enclose a triangular patch of black. 



4. The female of the Diabolic Wasp is about six-tenths of an inch long. It is black with 

 long yellow hairs. It has much yellow on the abdomen. Upon the first segment, the yellow 



