Mr. W. F. Kirby on a new Species o/Polistes. 143 



indistinct ; no tarsal fold. The tibio-tarsal articulation of 

 the adpressed hind limb reaches the shoulder. Skin smooth 

 above and below. Dark brown above, with blackish spots ; a 

 black band on each side of the head, passing through the 

 eye ; a black transverse band between the eyes ; vent in a 

 large triangular black spot ; sides of body and limbs finely 

 white-dotted J lower surfaces coppery brown, dotted with 

 whitish and spotted with dark brown. 



From snout to vent 27 millira. 



A single female specimen; Warragul, Gippsland, Victoria. 



XVII. — Description of a new Species of Polistes from South 

 America. By W. F. Kirby, F.E.S., Assistant in Zoolo- 

 gical Department, British Museum (Natural History). 



The following interesting species of wasp has lately been 

 acquired by the British Museum. 



Polistes orhitalis. 



Exp. al. 22 millim. ; long. corp. 14 millim. 



Black, clothed with very fine down. 



Head black, clypeus, orbits, and mandibles yellow ; clypeus 

 entire, slightly convex, rather wider than long ; mandibles 

 with the teeth blackish ; antennae black, scape yellow beneath, 

 second joint (and sometimes more slightly the tip) reddish 

 beneath ; thorax black, prothoracic lobes more or less com- 

 pletely red, with all the sutures narrowly yellow ; tegulas red ; 

 scutellum black, narrowly bordered with yellow behind, and 

 with two yellow lateral spots on the sutures before and behind 

 the metathorax, which is deeply channelled above, the channel 

 being bordered with yellow lines \ abdomen black, the first 

 two segments bordered behind with pale yellow, the third 

 segment bordered behind with darker yellow, and with a 

 nearly detached oblong spot on each side both above and 

 beneath ; the fourth and fifth segments are similarly marked, 

 except that their colour is almost entirely yellow (except the 

 fourth beneath) ; the sixth is nearly similarly coloured above, 

 but beneath it is marked with a wide, shallow, reddish 

 crescent with the curve directed forwards ; the terminal seg- 

 ments are almost entirely yellow. A slender broken median 

 line is visible on the yellow parts of the abdomen above. 



