1902 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



is narrow and interrupted. Upon the others, it is indented by the black, in the middle, and 

 on either side of the indentation is a black dot. Saussure must surely have been severely stung 

 by this wasp when he gave it its formidable name. 



5. Vespa Fernaldi was identi6ed for me in the Entomological Division of the Department 

 of Agriculture, Washington. It is a pretty insect. In each of the abdominal segments the 

 black intrudes upon the yellow by three indentations, of which the apical one is the largest. 



6. In Vespa media all the segments of the abdomen are marked alike with three scallops 

 protruding from the black band of every segment. The workers especially of this species have 

 much brown hair about them. 



7. Vespa rufa. Last summer I took a perfect female specimen of this beautiful and rare 

 wasp. It was flying under the veranda of Mr. Morgan's country-house on the Island of 

 Orleans. The insect is three-quarters of an inch long, and an inch and a quarter in expanse of 

 wings. The antennte was black without spots. The eyes are black and have an outer streak 

 of white on the upper off side only. Between the antennse is a white patch, indented above 

 and below, and broader than deep. The white facial plate is angulated outwardly, and is 

 divided, through all its length, by a broad black patch somewhat narrowed towards the bottom. 

 The legs of the insect are pale yellow above and red underneath. The marks on the thorax 

 are white. The segments of the abdomen are bordered with creamy white. The wings are 

 somewhat smoky, but have an ochreous tinge, and the veins are sienna- coloured. The first 

 abdominal segment of this wasp is of a rich chestnut or Venetian red ; and on the second seg- 

 ment there is an interrupted patch on either side of the same colour. This segment .is, with 

 the exception of the border, wholly dark red on the under side. The tip of the last segment is 

 red. The wasp is strikingly handsome. In the Provancher collection there is a worker of this 

 species taken at Chicoutimi. 



8. Vespa communis also was identified for me at Washington. It, more than any other of 

 our Quebec wasps, resembles the Vespa vulgaris of Europe. I have taken it atCowansville and 

 at Quebec. 



9. Vespa borealis. The wasp is described in Kirby's "Fauna Boreali- Americana: Insecta" 

 page 265. The description may be found on page 129 of Dr. Bethune's useful compilation 

 from Kirby's work, which was published by the Entomological Society of Ontario some years 

 ago. Kirby states that the specimen he described was taken as far north as lat. 65°. A. male 

 specimen of this species that I took at Levis last summer has been identified for me by Mr. 

 Ashmead of Washington. 



Polistes pallipes may be easily known 

 from its slender and elegant form, its soft 

 brown colouring, its white feet, and the 

 two parallel longitudinal streaks on the 

 after part of its thorax. (Fig. 51.) 



I will now close my paper with a 

 story told me by Mr. H. Brainerd of 

 i Montreal, It tells of an entirely eflTective, 



vifr. oi.— Polistes pallipes; n. the wasp; h. (lortioii of comb. but someivhat costly method of getting rid 



of a wasp's nest. 

 The Hamilton Powder Company had a magazine at Dinorwic, Ontario. In it was stored 

 four tons of dynamite. One day in last September two Irishmen were sent by the Hudson 

 Bay Company, to take out a supply of the explosive. There was a wasps' nest under the eaves 

 of the building, and an irritated wasp stung one of the men. He " got mad," and vowed he 

 would "smoke the critters out," so he made a "smudge." Now the ground had become 

 saturated with nitro-glycerine, and no sooner was a light applied to the smudge, than an 



