Insects. 



3703 



worker also varies in being destitute of the lateral rufous spot on the 

 second abdominal segment, this occurs only in one in thirty or forty 

 individuals. The sex that varies most is the male, which is frequently 

 without the rufous spots, and the black bands vary much in width, the 

 segments frequently having an extremely narrow black apical margin. 



1. Sexual organs of the male of Vespa Germanica. 2. Ditto of V. vulgaris. 3. Ditto of V. rufa. 



4. Ditto of V. sylvestris {holsatica, Fab.) 5. Ditto of V. Norwegica. 



As many erroneous statements have appeared with regard to the 

 distinction of the species,* at one time a distinct species having been 

 ranked as a variety, at another, all having been conjectured to be pro- 

 bably varieties of one species, I have made careful delineations of the 

 sexual organs of all the males, except those of Vespa Crabro and V. 

 arboreus, the first being undoubtedly distinct from all the others, and 

 the male of the latter I do not know : these figures will, I hope, sa- 

 tisfactorily prove the distinctness of five of our British Vespidae. 



Frederick Smith. 



October, 1852. 



* See Zool. i. 161. 



