708 BOSTON JOURNAL 



POLISTES Latr. 



1. P. METRICA. — Ferruginous; abdomen black; wings dark 

 violaceous. 



Inhabits United States. 



Bud}- ferruginous : antennae, fuscous ; first and second joints 

 ferruginous beneath ; five or six last joints fulvous beneath : hy- 

 postoma with a few distant yellow, short hairs, not sericeous ; at the 

 middle of the tip, a little prominent : thorax, with a black dorsal line 

 abbreviated behind, each side of which is an obsolete line confluent 

 behind, exterior to which at base is a black line attenuated 

 before and abbreviated : wings dark violaceous : feet black; tibiae 

 within, excepting the posterior pair ; knees and tarsi yellowish : 

 abdomen black ; first segment obsoletely piceous each side and 

 on the posterior edge : second segment also with obscure ferru- 

 ginous on each side, sometimes obsolete. 



Length over four-fifths of an inch. 



Resembles the aiirmlarts Fabr., but the ferruginous color is 

 mpre prevalent ; the hypostoma is not sericeous, a little more 

 prominent in the middle; the basal abdominal segment is some- 

 what larger and destitute of the annulation. I have obtained it 

 abundantly in Indiana and Mr. Barabinosent it to me from New 

 Orleans. 



2. P. AREATA. — Thorax black bilineate and margined with 

 yellow. [389] 



Inhabits Mexico. 



Head yellow : nasus with black sutures and line before from 

 the middle, bifarious near the antennae: mandibles piceous at tip : 

 antennae reddish-brown, darker above, and on the first joint yel- 

 low beneath : vertex black, of which two broad lines descend to 

 the antennae and one descends each side, for a short distance, 

 posterior to the eyes ; a yellow oblique line from the summit to 

 the tip of the eyes ; thorax black, with two yellow vittae : collar, 

 with an abbreviated line before the wings, and a transverse ante- 

 rior one, black ; wings slightly ferruginous on the costal margin : 

 scutel and segment beneath it yellow, the former black in the 

 middle : metathorax yellow, a black vitta, and lateral basal spot : 

 abdomen, first segment petioliform, as long as the second : tergum 



[Vol. I. 



