528 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Family XXVII VESPIDJE. 



These are the true social wasps, or "hornets," which live in colonies contain- 

 ing males, females and workers, the latter being, as in the bees, undeveloped 

 females All of them build paper cells or nests, some of them open and 

 exposed like the common globular gray " hornet's nest " that is attached to 

 bushes, some of them in trunks of trees and others under overhanging banks, 

 under stones or in holes in the ground. The insects are pugnacious, as anyone 

 who has ever disturbed a hornet or "yellow jacket's" nest has discovered to 

 his cost. The food consists of other insects, of honey or of pollen ; the larvae 

 being fed with masticated fragments of insects by the mother or workers. 

 There is no storing of food here, and the larvae are dependent upon the period- 

 ical feeding by adults. Only the impregnated females hibernate, and each of 

 these starts a colony of its own in the spring. One of their notable structural 

 characters is that when at rest the wings are folded longitudinally. 



VESPA Linn. 



V. borealis Kirby. Caldwell (Cr). 



V. crabro Linn. Orange Mts., Anglesea, IX, 6, Monmouth Co., Lahaway, 

 X, 5 (Sm), Caldwell (Cr), Staten Island (Ds). An imported species and 

 much the largest that occurs with us. 



V. Carolina Dru. Ocean Co., V (Sm), Staten Island, VI (Ds). 



V. communis Sauss. New Jersey, probably. 



V. cuneata Fabr. = worker of corolina Dru., (Ashm). New Brunswick, 

 VIII, 24 (Sm). 



V. diabolica Sauss. Orange Mts., Lahaway, V, New Brunswick, VII, 3 (Sm), 

 Westville (Crn), Jamesburg, VIII, 4, Atlantic Co., Staten Island, IX, Ft. 

 Lee, VII (Ds). 



V. germanica Fabr. Lahaway, IX, 16, New Brunswick, VIII, 3 (Sm), Cald- 

 well (Cr), and throughout the State. 



V. infernalis Sauss. "New Jersey." 



V. maculata Linn. Common everywhere in the State : it is the usual white- 

 faced wasp. 



V. occidentalis Cress. "New Jersey," Philadelphia (Fox). 



V. pennsylvanica Sauss. New Jersey, probably. 



V. vidua Sauss. Lahaway (Sm), Brighton, Philadelphia, New York (Ashm), 

 Westville (Crn). 



V. vulgaris Linn. Jamesburg, VI, 16, Lahaway (Sm), Staten Island (Ds), 

 Caldwell (Cr), Camden, VI, 20 (Fox). 



POLISTES Latr. 



These are the species that make the unprotected paper combs in sheltered 

 situations. 



P. annularis Linn. Jamesburg, VII, 21 (Sm), Staten Island, X (Ds. ) 



