ZOOLOGY OP FEENANDO KORONTTA. 



541 



29. POLISTES ElDLETT, D. SJD. 



Long. corp. 15-lG millim. ; exp. al. 26-20 millim. 



Wo7'Jcer. Varied with ferruginous red, dark brown, black, and 

 yellow; clothed with very fine silky pubescence. Head red, 

 the vertex darker, the face and orbits lighter, base of the head 

 black ; antennae black in the middle above. Thorax black, the 

 prothorax and raesothorax red above, the hinder edge of the 

 prothorax paler, and the front edge narrowly bordered with 

 yellow ; the edges and central line of the mesothorax more or 

 less bordered with black above ; on the pleura, beneath the 

 fore wings, is a conspicuous yellow spot ; scutellum and post- 

 scutellum edged in front with yellow, the band on the former 

 hardly complete in the middle, aud the space behind it more or 

 less red; metathorax finely and transversely striated, a deep 

 longitudinal channel in the middle, more strongly striated, aud 

 edged with a yellow stripe on each side ; on each side, above the 

 base of the hind coxae, is another yellow spot. Abdomen dark 

 brown, finely pubescent, shading into black at the base, and 

 generally more or less red at the extremity. Legs red, cox£e 

 and femora black, knees red or yellow, hind tibiae more or less 

 black in the middle. Wings smoky hyaline, strongly tinged with 

 ferruginous along the costa of the fore wings ; tegulae ferru- 

 ginous. 



Var. a. Face, head beneath, pectus, and coxae beneath yellow ; 

 femora striped beneath with yellow ; first two segments of the 

 abdomen with a small yellow spot on each side above, and a 

 larger one near the base of the first segment beneath. 



Very nearly allied to P. instahilis, Sauss., from Mexico ; but 

 this is a redder insect, with the segments of the abdomen always 

 more or less bordered with yellow. 



This insect is called here " Marimhoudo^''^ and is very common. 

 It makes its nest on the underside of an overhanging rock or 

 eaves of a house, or on the branch of a tree. I have seen a 

 Cashew-nut tree containing an immense number of nests in 

 various stages of construction. The nest consists of a single 

 comb of cells of a triangular or oval outline, and attached by a 

 pedicel at the narrow end ; a large one is about four inches in 

 length, and three across in the broadest part. The cells are 

 about three quarters of an inch deep, and a quarter of an inch 

 across. The insect stings slightly, but only when much irritated. 



