VESPA VULGARIS. 215 



slightly and widely emarginate, the angles produced, usually 

 subdentate. Mandibles oblong-quadrate, obliquely truncate at 

 the apex, and tridentate. Eyes notched internally, reaching to, 

 or nearly to, the base of the mandibles. Antennae geniculated 

 and simple in all the sexes. Thorax subglobose; the meta- 

 thorax truncate. Abdomen sessile and cylindrical. 



Section 1. Ground Wasps. 

 The scape of the antenna black in the females and workers. 



1. Vespa vulgaris. 



V. capite thoraceque nigris flavo-variis; abdomine flavo, seg- 

 ments singulis nigro-bimaculatis, segmenti primi margine 

 basali nigro-fasciato. 



Vespa vulgaris, Linn. Faun. Suec. 415. 1671 ; Syst. Nat. i. 949. 

 4 $ ; and Cab. Mus. Linn. Soc. 

 Scop. Ent. Cam. 825. 

 Be Geer, Ins. ii. pt. 2. 766. t. 26. f. 1-15. 

 Fabr. Syst. Ent. 364. 9 ; Ent. Syst. ii. 256. 10 ; Syst. Piez. 



255. 9. 

 Harris, Expos. Engl. Ins. 128. t. 37. f. 5. 

 Frisch, Ins. ix. t. 12. t. 2. 

 Christ. Hym. 236. t. 22. f. 2. 

 Panz. Faun. Germ. 49. 19. 

 Bon. Brit. Ins. vii. t. 266. 

 Kirby, Faun. Bor. Amer. 263. 

 Ratz. Forst. Ins. Bd. iii. 51. 2. 

 St. Farg. Hym. i. 516. 14. t. 10. 

 Zett. Ins. Lapp. 2nd ed. p. 453. 

 Herr. Schdff. Faun. Germ. 179. 3a. p. 36. 

 Smith, Zool. i. 162. f. c ? , and ix. Append, clxxvi. 

 Sauss. Mon. Guepes Soc. 113. 2. t. 14. f. 3. 



Female. Length 9 lines. — Black; the mandibles, clypeus, a 

 crown-shaped spot between the antennae, a line on the inner 

 orbit of the eyes, terminating in their sinus, and also the outer 

 orbits, yellow ; the clypeus with a black line down the centre, 

 usually terminating in a broad angular spot before the an- 

 terior margin; the teeth of the mandibles black. Thorax : an 

 oblique line on each side before the tegulae, two spots on the 

 scutellum, and two on the post-scutellum, yellow ; a yellow 

 spot beneath the wings; the tibiae, tarsi, and tips of the 

 femora, yellow. Abdomen yellow, with the base of the seg- 

 ments black, the black bands produced into a point in the 



