The Wasps and Bees collected by the Canadian Arctic 



Expedition, 1913-18. 



By F. W. L. Sladen. 



The wasps and bees brought back by the Canadian Arctic Expedition 

 consist of one species of Vespa, of which twentj^-eight specimens were taken in 

 Alaska, and eight species of bumble-bees (Bo?nbus), of which one hundred and 

 fifty specimens have been taken in Canada and Alaska. The purely Canadian 

 material consists of one hundred and eleven specimens of five species of bumble- 

 bees. 1 



It is worthy of note that Vespa is the only genus of wasps distributed 

 through the temperate region that lives in colonies containing a number of 

 small virgin females or workers which raise the males and the perfect females 

 or queens; and likewise, among the bees, Bombus is the only genus enjoying the 

 same manner of life, if we except Apis, in which the colony survives the winter. 

 In both Vespa and Bombus the colony breaks up at the end of the summer, 

 and the sole survivors, the young queens, after impregnation, pass the winter 

 solitarily in a state of complete torpidity, and establish new colonies in the 

 spring. 



VESPOIDEA. 



Represented by twenty-eight specimens from Alaska of one species of 

 Vespa. 



Vespa marginata Kirby. 



Vespa marginata Kirby, Fauna Boreali Americana, Insecta. 1837. 

 Vespa albida Sladen, Ottawa Naturalist, xxxii, p. 71. 



This species belongs to the Norvegica group which is distinguished from 

 the' other groups of the genus Vespa by the fact that the eyes do not nearly 

 reach to the mandibles, and the sagitae in the male genitalia are not fused 

 together at the tip. This species may be distinguished in the male and worker 

 by the pale yellow, almost white, markings, combined with two red spots on 

 the second dorsal segment of the abdomen. The red spots are absent in the 

 queen. 



Male. — Black: mandibles; clypeus, except a median longitudinal line, 

 broad in the middle; bilobate spot between antennae; scape in lion t ; a narrow 

 line on cheek above, behind eyes, another on inner margin of eye; a line on 

 pronotum bordering mesonotum; a small lateral spot on the scutellum, a 

 narrow uninterrupted slightly wavy line on apical margins of dorsal abdominal 

 segments 1 to 5; a narrow line interrupted in the middle on segment 6; two 

 large comma-shaped spots on segment 7 and the margins of ventral segments 

 2 to 4, pale yellow, almost white. A large red spot on each side of segment 2. 

 Second and base of third antennal joint testaceous beneath. Inner margin of 

 stipes not sharply angled, clothed with dense short red hairs; legs testaceous; 

 coxae, trochanters and bases of femora black; a black spot on fore tibiae, apex of 

 femora and of tibiae, and basal tarsi flavous. Bod}- hairs long, pale, mixed with 

 black, including those on the first segment of abdomen. Length, 13 mm. 



ir The types of all new species described in this Report are deposited in the Canadian National 

 Collection, Ottawa. 



