Nov., '02] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 273 



unbanded beak and by the brownish color in addition to all. 

 It probably occurs throughout the State where the conditions 

 that will permit its breeding, exist. 



Notes on Vcspoidea. 



By H. Iv. Viereck. 



Polybla nigripennis (Pabr.) 



Polistes iii^rripennis Fabr. Syst. Piez., 1804, p. 272, n. 14. 



Polistes nigripemiis !). T. Cat. Hym., ix, 132, 1894. 



Clypeus with the anterior edge forming an obtuse angle, a httle broader 

 than Ion 4^. Fro;it with an impressed line extending from the anterior 

 ocellus down to a little distance above the margin of the clypeus. 



9 Length 15 mm. — The entire tegument opaque covered with a very 

 fine and short golden pubescence, that on head and thorax shortest, not 

 so apparent as that on the thorax, which has a beautiful golden lustre 

 when held in certain lights. There are a few scattered punctures on the 

 clypeus. First joint of fiagellum as long as the two following joints united. 

 Prothorax and mesopleurje finely indistmctly punctured. The upper half 

 of the latter has a crooked impressed line near the posterior margin. The 

 dorsuluni has a median impre.ssed line extending to near the middle, a 

 median, longitudinal, impressed line on the postscutellum and on the pos- 

 terior face of the metathorax. 



Testaceous or light brown, abdomen and legs darkest, head and last 

 four segments of abdomen black, wings fuliginous. 



One specimen in Coll. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila., from 

 Georgetown, B. Guiana, S. Am. 



Polistes carnifex F'abr. 



Vespa carnifex Fab. Syst. Entom.,'i775. 



Polistes major Sauss not Beauv. Etud. Fam. Vespid. ii. p. 90, 1853. 



Polistes carnifex Sauss in part. Id. 



Polistes carnifex Fox in part. Proc. Calif. Ac. Sci., iv, 112, 1895. 



Clypeus $ more deltoid than quadrate, distinctly convex. Clypeus in 

 cf* longer than wide. 



? Length 28 mm.— Clypeus with sparse punctures, a raised point 

 between the insertion of antennae. Metathorax with a median longitu- 

 dinal furrow, the surface transversely striated. First joint of fiagellum 

 as long as the following three united. Entire tegument opaque, covered 

 with an almost imperceptible golden, short pubescence. The head above 

 the dorsulum, first half of antennae, a triangular mark on apical margin of 

 each side of metathorax, the furrow on the same, the legs, excepting the 

 small tarsal jouits and parts of the cox:e, first segment, exceping apical 

 bands, the second all but the apical half, the third, with the exception of 



