38 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
it suddenly changes, as before, into a broad yellow 
border. The smooth edge observed in the first 
segment is broken in the second by three projections 
or cusps; one larger, central, paler; and two smaller, 
lateral, more defined, and of a deeper colour. These 
diminish regularly on each successive ring; the 
central most rapidly. After the third rmg the point 
of the central cusp has generally disappeared, but the 
square or clubbed ends of the lateral cusps still pro- 
ject from beneath the edge of each preceding scale to 
the last. , | 
The markings of the perfect and imperfect female, 
that is of the queen and the worker, are nearly iden- 
tical, only a little more decided perhaps, as might 
have been expected, in the perfect msect. The cen- 
tral cusp in the worker is rather more pointed and 
proportionally longer. In {the male—the drone—the 
central cusp is much less prominent, and is rounded 
rather than poited. And the specific characters 
scarcely come out till the third segment, instead of 
appearing, as in the females, on the second. 
The six species of smaller wasps are all nearly of 
the same size, except V. vulgaris, the workers of which 
are generally rather below the average dimensions of 
the others. And they are all nearly of the same 
colour, except V. britannica and V. rufa, which have 
certain patches of an orange hue mixed with the 
regulation black and yellow uniform. The distinctive 
markings are to be looked for on the clypeus and the 
two first abdominal rings, as in the hornet. But, 
besides these, a most important distinction is to be 
found in the colour of the scape, the long first joint, 
