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REV. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S.. ON HORNETS. 365 
Yet hive bees, which belong to genus Apis among the 
Apidae, are assuredly not more removed in structure and 
from a scientific point of view from genus Vespa among the 
Vespide, which genus of wasps comprises such species as are 
eregarious and live in communities, than they are from 
humble-bees, which serve as the genus Bombus, and also as 
other genera of Bombide. The truth is Vespa crabro has 
received the distinct appellation of “hornet” because it is 
quite the largest British species of Vespa, and is also larger 
than all the Vespidw inhabiting our island, and because the 
black ground colour and markings of all other British 
Vespide are in it replaced by a chestnut brown. 
But if our synopsis of species be enlarged, so as to include 
a survey of foreign and exotic kinds, it will be found to com- 
prise many more sorts of a chestnut brown, some of them 
about the same size e as, and some of them far larger than, our 
British solitary species. Any review and comparison that 
regards exclusively only such species as occur in Britain 
must obviously be very partial and incomplete; and later on 
in this paper occasion will be taken to refer to one or more 
foreign kinds. Colour and size, however, serve as only 
superficial discrepancies. What is more to the point is that 
the physical structure of Vespa erabro and that of our common 
ground wasps, to wit, V. vulgaris and V. germanica, is one and 
the same ; also that all the three above-named species alike 
construct their cells of wood taken from hollow trees, 
palings, etce., and which is masticated by them for the 
purpose ; that all alike commit depredations on fruit; that all 
alike become frequently intoxicated by the juice of ripe 
apples or pears, or by the honey of certain blossoms, and 
then drop helplessly from the trees; that all have the abdomen 
similarly spotted and banded ; that all alike place thei cells 
on the upper side of the comb only, leaving the under side a 
flat surface, whereas the hive bee constructs her waxen cells 
on both upper and under surfaces of the comb; that the sting 
of the common wasp, and, a fortiori, that of the hornet, 1s far 
more venomous and painful than that of sand wasps or 
mason wasps, or indeed, I might add, than that of any other 
British Hymenoptera; that all alike live in common, there 
being a large number of them in each nest; whereas sand 
wasps and mason wasps live singly and separately, even though 
the cells which they construct are situate near together, or 
at any rate a very short distance apart. 
The habit which the hornet and the ground wasp have in 
