new Species of Viploptera. lOo 



■with yellow on apical margiu of both tergite and sternite. 

 Legs entirely dark orange-yellow. Wings golden hyaline, 

 darkest along the costa. 



Head as broad as thorax, moderately dilated behind the 

 eyes, the transverse furrow on pronotum very distinct. 

 Clypeus finely punctured, the anterior angles bluntly rounded. 

 Thorax broad and short, abdomen broadly truncate at base. 

 AY hole insect covered with a long, dense, black pubescence. 



Length 17 mm. 



1 ?. 



Hub. Formosa {A. E. Wileman). 



M. R. du Buysson, who has seen the insect, considers it 

 to be very closely allied to V. variabilis, du Buyss., of which 

 species the coloration is very variable. 



Vespa mandarinia, Smith. 



Vespa m,a?idarmia, Smith, Trans. Eutom. Soc. Lond. ii. p, 38, t. viii. 



tig. 1 (1852) (Japan). 

 l^espa viaynifica, var. latilineata^ Cam., MS. 



Syn(eca, Sauss. 



There appears to be some difference of opinion as to the 

 position of the opening in the nests of these wasps. 



Du Buysson, in his admirable " Monographie des Vespides 

 appartenant aux genres Apoica et Synwca" (Soc. Ent. 

 France, vol. Ixxv. (1906) p. 348), says that Saussure and 

 Mobius have both represented the nest as having the opening 

 at the lower end, but that it is in reality at the top. The 

 nests figured were in each case those of Synoeca surinama, L. 

 The Rev. G. C. Hungerford Pollen, S.J., who has spent some 

 years in British Guiana, has made some most interesting 

 observations on the habits of this insect, and has been good 

 enough to allow me to make use of them. 



It will be noticed that all nests observed by Mr. Pollen 

 had their solitary opening at the lower end. 



Other interesting observations were made on the habits of 

 a Chalcid fly {Epitelia aculeata, Walker), which was observed 

 to oviposit iu the nests, and on the manner in which the 

 whole colony of Sijnoeca would unite in saving their home 

 from destruction by the tropical rain. Some of these obser- 

 vations are best quoted verbatim from Mr. Pollen's notes : — 



"About Christmas 1908 I was on the N.W. coast at the 

 mouth of the Essequibo River, British Guiana, about 35 miles 

 from Georgetown. There is a long stretch of sand with 



