89 



HYMENOPTERA. 



species is found in New Holland." It is most probable that the Australasian spe- 

 cimens constitute a distinct but very closely allied species. The Stilbum princeps of 

 G. R. Gray, figured in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, Insects, pi. 77, from the collection 

 of the Eev. F. TV. Hope, is from Melville Island, and is perhaps identical with the 

 New Holland variety, mentioned by Fabricius and Donovan. 



VBSPA CINCTA. 



Plate LVII. fig. 1. 



Section. Aculeata, Latreille. 

 Family. Vespid.e, Leach. 

 Genus. Vespa, Linnaeus. 



Species. Vespa Cincta : nigra ; capite nigro ; tliorace maculato scutelloque obscuro, fulvis ; 

 abdomine atro fascia ferruginea ; alis ferrugineis, basi nigvis. Long. Corp. 

 uno. 1. 

 Vespa : black, with the head black ; thorax with two spots on each side before 

 the wings, and the scutellurn obscure fulvous ; abdomen black, with a ferru- 

 ginous or fulvous bar ; wings ferruginous ; black at the base. Length of the 

 body, 1 inch. 

 Sra Vespa cincta, Fair. Ent. Syst. 2. p. 253. Syst. Piez. p. 253. St. Fargeau Hut. Nat. 

 Hymenopt. I. p. 505. 

 Sphex tropica, Sulzer. Hist. Ins. tab. 27, fig. 5. 



Either this species is subject to considerable variation in its colours, or (which 

 appears to me to be the case,) several distinct species have been confounded together 

 under the name of V. cincta. Fabricius describes V. cincta from Tranquebar with 

 the characters which I have abstracted above, adding a variety from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and a species under the name of V. affinis, being, as he says, « Nimis afnms 

 V cincta," M. le Comte de Saint Fargeau has also described two other varieties, 

 under the name of cincta, neither of which precisely agree with the Fabncian 

 character. 



