1901 .J HYMENOFXEKA f BOM KEW BBITAI]!s . 241 



uervure ; the Srd transverse cubital uervure is roundly curved on 

 the lower side. Legs black, pruinose ; the tibife and tarsi are 

 sparsely spined. Abdomen black, shining; the petiole long, curved, 

 clearly longer than the fore tibiae, it is rather thickly covered with 

 long black hair ; the apical ventral segments are thickly covered 

 with long black hair. 



This species cannot well be confounded with the other New 

 Britain Isodonta (egens Kohl), which is easily known from it by 

 the difference in the colour of the body and wings, and by the very 

 different form of the antennae. (Cf. Kohl, Termez. Tiizetek, xxi. 

 1898, p. 335, pi. XV. f. 23.) 



V E S P I D iE. 



Vespa AEEiisris Fab. 



This is probably only a variety of Vespa cincta Fab. The K'ew 

 Britain queens do not differ materially from the normal forms ; 

 but the Avorkers are much darker than usual, not only on the 

 thorax but on the abdomen ; the brownish colour is either very 

 obscure, much darker than usual, or completely obliterated. 



PoLiSTES MACULiPENNis Sauss. (stigma). 



The abdomen is richly coloured ; the black is deeper and the 

 yellow and rufous brighter than in most of the examples I have 

 seen. 



POLISTES AETHUEI, Sp. nov. 



Ferruginemj scuteJh, mesopleiiris metathoraceque nigris ; pedihus 

 rufis, coccis, femoribus tibiisque posticis nigris ; alis fiavo-liya- 

 lims, yiervis stigmateque fulvis. § , 



Long. 20-2] mm. 



Antennae rufous, covered with a pale microscopic down. On the 

 head, the occiput, the vertex from shortly behind the ocelli to the end 

 of the upper part of the eye-incision, the space between the antenncT 

 and above the top of the clypeus are black. The part below the 

 eyes of the clypeus is distinctly longer than the part above it ; it 

 becomes narrowed towards the apex, which is broadly rounded, 

 not sharply pointed as with most of the species of the* genus • it 

 IS fringed there with fulvous hair. The vertex is closely and 

 rather strongly punctured ; the clypeus bears scattered punctures. 

 On the thorax the prouotum and the mesonotum are rufous ; the 

 edges of the latter, a line down the middle, and the apex broadly 

 are black ; it is covered with a white down ; the pleura and scu- 

 tellum are punctured, but not closely or deeply ; the furrow on 

 the median segment is wide and deep ; the post-scutellum has a 

 rather sharp oblique slope. Tegulaj black. Legs black ; the four 

 anterior tibiae and tarsi are rufous, with the middle tarsi paler 

 towards the apex ; the hinder tarsi are pale yellow, except at the 

 base, where they are more rufous in tint, the basal segment of 

 the abdomen is entirely black ; the 2nd and 3rd segments may be 

 black at the base ; below they may be entirely black. 



