278 



DESCRIPTIONS OF FOUR NEW SPECIES OF VESPA 

 FROM JAPAN. 



By p. Cameron. 



The four species here described were taken by Mr. George 

 Lewis in Japan. I have had them marked as being undescribed 

 for some years. 



Vespa tridbntata, sp. nov. 



Black ; the wings dark fuscous, with a violaceous tinge ; the costa 

 black, the nervures and stigma dark fuscous ; the head, mandibles, the 

 apices of abdominal segments one to five, and the whole of the sixth 

 rufous ; the hinder part of the vertex and the upper part of the outer 

 orbits with an orange tinge. Antenna) black, the scape rufous, the 

 flagellum brownish beneath. Legs black, the apex of the fore femora 

 and their tibite rufous. $ . Length, 25 mm. 



Hab. Japan. 



Head large, slightly wider than the thoi'ax ; the malar space dis- 

 tinct, moderately large; frontal plate wider than long, becoming 

 gradually roundly narrowed to the apex, its base transverse, its centre 

 with a narrow furrow. Clypeus strongly and closely punctured, its 

 apex in the centre ending in a small, rounded, smooth tooth, with a 

 much broader, longer, rounded one on either side. Mandibles rufous, 

 the apex and teeth black ; they are closely and strongly punctured. 

 The hair on the head is fuscous, paler on the clypeus. Head and 

 thorax covered with long dark hair. The apex of the prothorax dark 

 rufous. The bands on the abdomen are broad and extend on to the 

 ventral segments. 



This species come close to V. magnifica, Smith, but that 

 species is larger, the temples are longer compared with the 

 eyes, the malar space is larger, the frontal area longer and more 

 sharply pointed at the apex, and the reddish bands on the abdo- 

 men are much narrower. 



Mr. Lewis captured at Hitoyoshi a queen Vespa which forms 

 a well-marked variety of V. magnifica, var. latilineata, Cam. It is 

 larger by 6 or 7 mm. than any of the recorded examples of 

 magnifica ; the bands on the abdomen are much wider, and the 

 basal two segments are also broadly banded at the base. In 

 having broad abdominal bands this variety agrees with V. iri- 

 dentata here described, but the different form of the clypeus dis- 

 tinguishes that species. 



Vespa xanthoptera, sp. nov. 

 Fulvous, tinged in places with yellow, the vertex from shortly 

 behind the ocelli to the frontal plate, a line on the sides of the latter 

 and a broader one below the antenna, the occiput, mesonotum, a line 

 on the centre and apex of the scutellum, the pleur£E, the metanotum, 

 except the sides from near the top, the basal slope of the first abdo- 

 minal segment, the mark narrowed in the centre and united to a broad 



