HYMENOPTERA — VESPID@. I49 
&c., underground.* Another species, closely allied to it (V. media 
Latr.), intermediate in size between it and V. crabro, forms a similar 
nest, but which it attaches to the branches of trees. Dr. Leach 
(Zool. Mise. vol. i. pl. 50.) has described and figured a species under 
the name of V. Britannica, which ordinarily suspends its nest from 
trees, especially from pines, varying from the size of a pear to a foot 
in diameter. The female which has survived the winter makes a small 
nest, in which a brood of neuters are produced, the female closing + 
the mouth of the cells when the larve are full grown. This brood, 
when arrived at perfeciion, assist their parent in constructing a new 
and much larger nest. The Rev. E. Bigge, however, considers that 
the latter statement is not correct; and I am inclined to think that 
the /arve close the mouth of their cells, especially as Réaumur fre- 
quently saw the larve in the act of spinning the covering. Latreille 
describes the nest of V. holsatica Fab. as being of a very slender 
papyritiovs texture, scarcely two inches long, and almost globular in 
form, with one end, where is the aperture, truncated. Its envelope is 
composed of three pieces, of which the basal one resembles the cup 
of the acorn. One of these nests was found in a bee-hive, another in 
an empty room. (Latr., in Ann. du Mus. tom.i. p. 289.) Réaumur 
figures a nest, nearly agreeing with this description, attached to a 
* Such is the ordinary habitat of the species regarded in this country and 
France as the V. vulgaris of Linneus; but that author says, ‘* Habitat sub tectis ” 
(Syst. Nat. p. 949.); and De Geer’s nest (tom. ii. p. 766. pl. 26, 27. fig. 1.) was from 
the wooden rafters of a house. The Rev. A. Matthews showed me a very large 
nest in such a situation, at Weston, Oxfordshire; and I can perceive no difference 
between the neuters of it and of the underground nest, in my figure 88. 17. The 
Rey. E. Bigge has endeavoured to clear up the differences between this insect and 
the tree wasp; but he has fallen into many errors. Thus, he considers the Lin- 
nean V. vulgaris to be the tree wasp, which it certainly is not, because Linnzus 
says, “ Scutello quadrimaculato, abdominis incisuris punctis nigris distinetis,” 
which Mr. Bigge even states is not the case in the tree wasp. He also considers 
the insect now regarded as the V. vulgaris (the common earth wasp), as the Vespa 
gallica Linn., which it certainly is not; the latter being decidedly a Polistes, as I 
can assert, having captured specimens in France exactly agreeing with the Linnean 
description. Again, he states that the habits of the tree wasp had been fuily 
deseribed by De Geer; but this is evidently not correct, in consequence of the 
situation in which De Geer’s nest was found. I hesitate, however, in regarding 
it as identical with the ground wasp of Réaumur, especially in consequence of the 
difference in the sexual organs of the male, a character whieh Audouin has proved 
to be of great specific value amongst the humble bees. 
+ J. W. Bond (Entomol. Mag. No. 18. p. 224.), in like manner, states that the 
full grown larva is coyered in by the working wasps. : 
