Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/190

162 ever, it is by no means a rare, although certainly a local, insect. It is plentiful in Hampshire, and flies boldly into houses in August and September. A few years ago, as I was walking by the side of Virginia water, by moonlight, I heard a loud booming noise, evidently caused by some insect darting rapidly by. I was for some time at a loss to conceive what this could be; at last I succeeded in knocking one down, when I found it was a hornet. By watching the flight of others, I soon discovered the tree containing their nest; they were carrying on their labours by the light of the moon, apparently quite as busily as if it had been open day. Late in the autumn hornets excavate deep holes in decayed trees, and in these they pass the winter.

The common wasp ( Vespa vulgaris).

a b males.

c d females.

e f neuters.

Female.—Head black; clypeus yellow, with a black line down the centre, generally having its termination anchor-shaped, but sometimes a simple line, or an indication of a line, with one or three spots below, and, in rare instances, without spots; a crown-shaped spot between the antennae, a line close to the eyes, on the face, and another on their outer margin reaching to the mandibles, yellow; the mandibles also yellow, their inner margin blackish brown. Thorax black;