114 Mr. G. A. J. Rothney wt 



certain wLen on the wing if one of the common species 

 may not turn out to be hasima.cula, with its broad white 

 band. On one occasion hasimacula made its nest in 

 the turret-staircase leading to the roof of my bungalow. 

 The cells were very strongly formed and covered with a 

 particularly stickv kind of cement like shell-lac. 



Polistcs hchwus, Fab. — The commonest wasp in BaiTack- 

 j)ore, and generally known as the YcUcnv ivasp. It will 

 take up its position in a verandah, outhouse, or other 

 building, and go on piling up its nest on nests year after 

 year with a persistence which will take no denial. It 

 varies greatly in size and colour, some specimens being- 

 pinched and starved in appearance and of a dirty grey- 

 green colour, while others are really fine insects with a 

 brilliant yellow colouring like fresh gamboge. Season and 

 environment may have something to do with this varia- 

 tion. A most striking instance of this was a colony 

 formed in a little white dome-shaped building which 

 protected a monument to one of the former worthies of 

 the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. It stands in one of the 

 main roads of the gai'dens, without a particle of shelter or 

 shade from the blazing sun, and here hchnvus built its 

 nests year after year, the wasps developing to such a size 

 and of such an intense yellow as almost to suggest a new 

 variety, 



Vcspa cincta, Fab. — 'This species may be taken as the 

 Bengal hornet; it seldom frequents houses, but is common 

 enough in trees, shrubs, and old out-buildings. For many 

 years a large nest was established in the Chirj^a Khana 

 (aviary) in the Park. Another, a very curious nest, was 

 built in a large square terra-cotta flower-pot in the Park. 

 A tree of some sort had died, leaving a bare stem about 

 four feet high, and up this the nest was built and added 

 to year after year. I had a great ambition to secure this 

 nest for the British Museum, but the great difficulty 

 of packing it for sea- transport compelled me to give up 

 the idea. This species is very fond of frequenting the 

 date palm when cut by the natives for collecting toddy. 

 They will settle round the stems in thousands to feast on 

 the exuding juice. It is curious that at such times the 

 little grey Indian squirrel (Sciurits ]pahnarv.in) Avill come 

 and clear the hornets out with its paws, and take its fill of 

 the toddy without being molested in any way, and yet 

 it is not an unknown incident for cinda to attack even 



