CLASSIFICATION OF THE SPECIES. Al 
long black hair, so as to present quite a rough furry 
appearance. 
V. sylvestris, Plate II, is a larger msect than the 
preceding, and of a lighter colour; she stands higher, 
and is altogether the most beautiful of the British 
social wasps. Commencing, as before, with the 
female: her clypeus is marked with a single dark 
spot in the centre. A fine yellow line runs round 
the mner edge of the compound eyes, and the corona 
is a more prominent feature than in V. britannica. 
This is larger; its upper edge is slightly hollowed 
out in the middle; two little notches are seen on 
each side; and the outline of the lower edge is 
broken in the centre by a round hole being gouged 
out as it were. These figures need a lens to trace 
them, but they give very important differential 
characters. 
The thorax resembles that of V. britannica, and so, 
but for the absence of the orange tint, does the first 
abdominal ring. The second ring is more distinctive. 
There is a broad black band, gradually narrowing 
from the central point, the regular sweep of which is 
but little interfered with by the slight projection of the 
angular lateral cusps. And these slight projections 
rapidly disappear in the succeeding rings. The male 
differs from the female in the more uniform width of 
the black bands on the abdominal rings; they con- 
tract less from the central point, though their sweep 
is more broken by projecting lateral cusps. These 
are most distinct in the worker. The central point 
on the first rmg is more prominent in the male 
insect. 
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