the Habits of Australian Hymenoptera. 181 



most. About the centre of the bottom flat surface the wasp con- 

 structs a most beautiful, funnel-shaped entrance, the pipe of 

 which is continued a short way within the shell of the nest ; at 

 the top a single layer of cells are constructed without regularity 

 of form or disposal ; only a single wasp was observed either 

 building or furnishing the nest. Unluckily the nest, which Mr. 

 Ker describes as being one of the most beautiful he ever saw, was 

 broken on the voyage to this country. 



The following passage, in Mitchell's Expedition into Eastern 

 Australia (vol. i. p. 104), can hardly refer to this species, as it 

 appears to have been some gregarious wasp by which the travel- 

 lers were attacked. 



" At seventeen miles we entered a plain, where grew trees of 

 the Acacia pendula, and we traversed it in the most elongated di- 

 rection, or to the south-west. On entering the wood beyond, a 

 sudden extreme pain in my thigh made me shout, before I was 

 aware of the cause. A large insect had fastened upon me, and 

 on looking back I perceived Souter, ' the doctor,' defending him- 

 self from several insects of the same kind. He told me that I 

 had passed near a tree from which their nest was suspended: and 

 it appeared that this had been sufficient to provoke the attack of 

 these saucy insects, who were provided with the largest stings I 

 had ever seen. The pain I felt was extreme, and the effect so 

 permanent, that when I alighted in the evening from my horse, 

 on that leg, not thinking of the circumstance, I fell to the ground, 

 the muscles having been generally affected. The wound was 

 marked by a blue circular spot, as large as a sixpence, for several 

 months." 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 



Plate XVI. fig. 1. Polistes lanio ; 2. Trigonalys compressa ; 3. Nest of a wasp 

 formed of clay ; 4. Clay nest of Abispa ; 5. Abispa ephippiuml 



