CLASSIFICATION OF THE SPECIES. 47 
appear as dots separated from the black band instead 
of cusps, the grounds of distinction are almost lost. 
And when besides, the face markings are not deci- 
sive, in such a case, away from one’s books, and 
specimens, and microscope, it is absolutely impos- 
sible to say to which species a male or worker of 
either of these rightly belongs. The best entomo- 
logist would be puzzled to sort a handful of these 
wasps under such circumstances. 
V. rufa, Plate IV, presents several varieties of 
marking. The queen, who is much larger in pro- 
portion to her subjects than the queens of the other 
species, has the figure of an anchor very distinctly 
traced on the clypeus, the shank being placed verti- 
cally, with the arms turning up on either side. 
There is only a thin yellow line along the margin of 
the eyes, the corona standing in a dark space. This 
presents a deep central notch on its upper edge, 
dividing it into two ares. The sides are straight, 
the lower edge concave. 
The thorax presents seldom more than one pair of 
yellow spots on its posterior surface. In the first 
ring of the abdomen the black band does not extend 
beyond the square truncated end. In the centre of 
the dorsal aspect of this ring is a dark oval spot, 
elongated transversely, darker where it first. rises 
into view from the black band, and shaded off at its 
edges. A reddish shade spreads out on either side 
to joi it to the lateral spots, which look like the 
two halves of the central spot repeated at the ex- 
treme ends of the dorsal scale of the segment. 
Sometimes, instead of these three spots, the connect- 
