216 VESPA GERMANICA. 



middle ; the second and following segments with a black dot 

 on each side. 



Var. a. The black dots united to the black basal band on one, 

 two, or all the segments. 



Var. /3. The line on the clypeus without the engular termina- 

 tion, or with one or three spots. 



Worker. Length 5^-7 lines. Very like the female, but differs 

 in having a large yellow spot on each side of the metathorax ; 

 the basal segment has an angular spot in the middle, and a 

 dot on each side, black ; the black dots rarely united to the 

 black bands. 



Male. Length 6-8 lines. Differs in having the scape yellow 

 in front ; the markings of the clypeus differ, as in the female ; 

 the scutellum and post-scutellum as in the worker ; the abdo- 

 men has a black band at its base, as in the female, and the 

 segments are similarly spotted ; the spots are, however, more 

 frequently united to the black basal bands. 



Found in all parts of the United Kingdom, usually appearing 

 in April ; but on the 13th of February, 1^59, the weather being 

 unusually mild, a female was seen on the wing at Hampstead. 

 Mr. Wollaston found the female very abundant under stones on 

 the extreme summit of Yribon Oernant, near Llangollen, in 

 September 1854 ; probably hybernating for the winter. 



2. Vespa G-ermanica. 



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

 mentis singulis nigro-bimaculatis, segniento primo trimaculato- 

 nigro. 



Vespa Germanica, Fair. Ent. Syst. ii. 256. 1 2 <? ; Syst. Piez. 256. 10. 

 St. Farg. Hym. i. 515. 13. 

 Panz. Faun. Germ. 49. 20 $ . 

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

 Herr. Schdff. Faun. Germ. 179. 2. p. 35. 

 Smith, Zool. ix. Append, clxxvii. 

 Sauss. Mon Guepes Soc. 116. 3. pi. xiv. f. 4, 4a, 4 c. 



Female. Length 8-9 lines. Very like V. vulgaris, but known 

 at once by the three spots on the basal margin of the first seg- 

 ment of the abdomen; the clypeus has sometimes a central 

 black line descending to the middle, or only three minute 

 black spots. 



Worker. Usually larger than those of V. vulgaris ; the large 

 workers considerably so, but difficult to distinguish from them, 



