Mr. F. Smith on the Nest of Polistes Lanio, dfc. 177 



This discovery is one of much interest, proving the relationship 

 of the insect to be amongst the pupivora, to which family it had 

 been previously assigned by Mr. Westwood, see Vol. III. Ent. 

 Trans, p. 270. The specimen is seven lines in length, entirely 

 black, the head shining, the thorax and abdomen opaque, and 

 having two white maculae touching the apical margin of the basal 

 segment above ; the wings are smoky, the antennae broken off. 

 Of one of them I found subsequently seventeen joints — the perfect 

 insect in the possession of Mr. Saunders having twenty joints. 



/ 



Another exceedingly interesting nest has also been lately pre- 

 sented to the British Museum ; it is that of a species of social 

 wasp, but unfortunately it did not contain any specimen of the 

 insect. The peculiar interest attached to this nest arises from the 

 nature of the material of which it is composed, it being constructed 

 entirely of clay, or, more correctly probably, of sandy loam ; in 

 form it is somewhat egg-shaped, blunted at each end, the longest 

 diameter being 10| inches, the shortest 8| ; at the upper end is an 

 opening, through which the branch to which it was suspended has 

 passed, and the shell at this part is three quarters of an inch thick, 

 from which it becomes gradually thinner towards the bottom, 

 where it is about the eighth of an inch in thickness : down one 

 side is an oblong slit six inches in length and nearly a quarter wide, 

 the margins of which are about half an inch in thickness ; but it 

 can be ascertained that it is not equally so all round, but merely 

 so for the purpose of strengthening the entrance to the nest. The 

 nest contains six combs, placed as usual horizontally, the cells 

 being downwards ; the backs of the combs are deeply concave, 

 and have been apparently attached by their entire margins to the 

 exterior shell, the oblong slit giving free ingress to each cham- 

 ber. From the broken state of the nest a vast number of cells 

 are visible, but I cannot detect any difference in the size of them, 

 each being two lines in diameter from the two parallel sides of the 

 hexagons. This would lead one to suppose that there can be little 

 or no difference in the size of the sexes of the inhabitants, and 

 that the species is one of those which are allied to the genus 

 Myrapetra of White, and of which I myself possess about thirty 

 distinct species, the sexes of which appear to differ but slightly 

 in size. The cells, which are of the most regular and beautiful 

 construction throughout, are continued beyond their margins, in 

 some instances into the shell itself, but none of these are carried 

 beyond a shallow excavation. There is no coating or glazing of 



VOL. I. N. S. PART VI. — SEPT. 1851. N 



