186S.J 279 



on tlie tibia) and tarsi ; thoy arc clothed sparingly with very long hairs. 

 The under-surface is dark red. The antennse have the joints 1 to 3 dark 

 red, 4 — 6 black, 7 — 8 clear red, and 9 — 11 black. Palpi pitchy-red. 



Villa Nova, Lower Amazons. I took several specimens in dry 

 weather during January and February, running along slender branches 

 of trees in the forest, in company with G. Jacquieri (Dej.). 



London, April, 1868. 



DESCRIPTION OF AN UNDESCRIBED SPECIES OF WASP AND ITS 

 NEST, RECEIVED FROM HAKODADI, IN JAPAN. 



BY r. SMITH. 



Within the last few years many species of insects, new to science, 

 have been forwarded to this country by our friend Mr. Geo. Lewis, the 

 well-known coleopterist ; and, about twelve months ago, he very 

 obligingly sent a beautiful wasp's nest for my own collection. Being 

 anxious to make the collection of the nests of insects in the British 

 Museum as complete as opportunities will allow, I there deposited it. 

 It pertains to one of the large species which are known as hornets. 

 The dimensions are as follow : — length 12 inches, diameter at the widest 

 part 9 inches. The outer envelope is composed of a very coarse 

 reddish-brown paper, laid on in overlapping folds, somewhat resembling 

 in shape a series of scallop-shells ; these are composed of alternate 

 layers of dark brown and white, the materials apparently having been 

 obtained from decayed woods of those colours ; this mode of construc- 

 tion gives the whole a pretty, variegated appearance. It is attached to 

 a branch in a similar way to the nests of the Vespa Norvegica of this 

 country. The wasp, as will be seen from the dimensions given, must 

 be about the same size as the British hornet. We have only seen 

 males extracted from the cells, and know nothing of either female or 

 worker. 



Vespa Japonica, male. Length 10| lines. Black : the head and 

 thorax with pale yellow pubescence ; the clypeus, mandibles, and lower 

 portion of the cheeks ferruginous ; the scape fulvous, and the flagellum 

 fulvous beneath. The anterior tibise and tarsi pale ferruginous, the 

 former black beneath ; the intermediate and posterior tibise and tarsi 

 fusco-ferruginous, the apical joints of the tarsi palest. The wings 

 fulvo-hyaliue, with the front margin of the anterior pair fuscous. The 

 apical margins of the segments of the abdomen with yellow fasciae, the 

 two apical segments entirely yellow. 



