18G8.J 270 
on tlic tibict) and tarsi ; tlioy arc clothed sparinrrly with very long hairs. 
The under-surfacc is dark red. The antennae have the joints 1 to 3 dark 
red, 4—6 black, 7—8 clear red, and 9—11 black. Palpi pitchy-red. 
Villa Nova, Lower Amazons. I took several specimens in dry 
weather during January and February, running along slender brandies 
of trees in the forest, in company with C. Jacquicri (Dej.). 
London, A'pril, 1868. 
DESCRIPTION OF AN UNDESCEIBED SPECIES OF WASP AND ITS 
NEST, RECEIVED FROM HAKODADI, IN JAPAN. 
BY F. SMITH. 
Within the last few years many species of insects, new to science, 
have been forwarded to this country by our friend Mr. Geo. Lewis, the 
well-known coleopterist ; and, about twelve months ago, he very 
obligingly sent a beautiful wasp's nest for my own collection. Eeing 
anxious to make the collection of the nests of insects in the British 
Museum as complete as opportunities will allow, I there deposited it. 
It pertains to one of the large species which are known as hornets. 
The dimensions are as follow :— length 12 inches, diameter at the widest 
part 9 inches. The outer envelope is composed of a very coarse 
reddish-brown paper, laid on in overlapping folds, somewhat resembling 
in shape a series of scallop-shells ; these are composed of alternate 
layers of dark brown and white, the materials apparently having been 
obtained from decayed woods of those colours ; this mode of construc- 
tion gives the whole a pretty, variegated appearance. It is attached to 
a branch in a similar way to the nests of the Vespa Norvegica of this 
country. The wasp, as will be seen from the dimensions given, must 
be about the same size as the British hornet. "We have only seen 
males extracted from the cells, and know nothing of either female or 
worker. 
Vespa Japonica, male. Length 10| lines. Black : the head and 
thorax with pale yellow pubescence ; the clypeus, mandibles, and lower 
portion of the cheeks ferruginous ; the scape fulvous, and the flagellum 
fulvous beneath. The anterior tibise and tarsi pale ferruginous, the 
former black beneath ; the intermediate and posterior tibise and tarsi 
fusco-ferruginous, the a[)ical joints of the tarsi palest. The wings 
fulvo-hyaline, with the front margin of the anterior pair fuscous. The 
apical margins of the segments of the abdomen with yellow fasciae, the 
two apical segments entirely yellow. 
