36 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
predominating hue is brown, instead of black, and 
the markings are of an orange- rather than of the 
gamboge-yellow, which is the familiar livery of the 
smaller British wasps. The markings lose their 
special interest in the hornet, as her size and colour 
present distinctive characters more easy of recogni- 
tion. But they are, nevertheless, worth attention, 
because the markings indicate the arrangement of 
parts within, and the larger size of this insect enables 
us readily to make out in her what we have some 
difficulty in tracing in the smaller species. 
The antenne are of a light brown, all the joints 
being of the same colour. Between them, and rising 
above the point of their origin, is a yellow patch, the 
corona, taking the form of the heart in playing cards. 
Below appears the large convex clypeus, longer 
from above downwards in proportion than in the 
smaller species ; its uniform yellow surface occasion- 
ally broken by a single brown central spot. Below 
this the large mandibles meet in the mesial line, 
sometimes overlapping a good deal. Narrowing as 
they diverge from each other, they are articulated 
at the other end to the yellow horny rim, which sur- 
rounds the whole face, and gives a peculiar expression 
to the hornet. This margin does not appear in the 
smaller species because their eyes are larger and the 
clypeus is broader in proportion. 
The markings of the thorax have more interest in 
an anatomical point of view than as furnishing specific 
characters. The distinctions in colour appear only as 
different shades of brown; but they brmg out very 
plainly the position of the divisions of the thorax, 
which, indeed, are otherwise displayed very strongly 
