Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/192

164 at the base of the first segment, the remaining segments have a basal band, and a spot on each side, sometimes separate and sometimes united, particularly to the second and third bands. Var. 3. has three spots at the base of the first segment, all the others have a black band at the base, dentate in the centre, with separated spots on each side.

From the difficulty I have experienced in making out the descriptions of previous authors, I have thought it necessary to give these detailed characters; in each instance mentioning the sex described, which appears to me a matter of considerable importance, especially in an insect whose varieties have been treated as species. On the subject of these varieties great difference of opinion appears to exist, and this seems attributable, not so much to variation in colour or appearance, great as this certainly is, as to occasional deviations from its usual economy.

In some of the most celebrated London cabinets an insect is ticketed Vespa vulgaris, which does not agree with the Linnæan description (although I shall prove it to be one of the varieties of that species), but corresponds with the Linnaean description of V. germanica. I have no doubt that some of the confusion at present existing is to be attri buted to the occasional deviations from its usual or true habit, instances of which I shall relate.

The Rev. E. Bigge, M.A., in a paper read to the Ashmolean Society, February 27, 1835, containing some valuable observations on the economy of wasps, has endeavoured to clear up the difficulty respecting the true Linnæan V. vulgaris; but by adhering strictly to the habit pointed out by Linnaeus, of forming its nest on beams in sheds, under the eaves of houses, or in low trees, has only made confusion greater. Mr. Bigge says "the species named Vespa vulgaris by Linnaeus, is in fact the Vespa britannica." Now the latter insect will not agree with the Linnaean description,—"scutellum with four yellow spots, the abdomen yellow, the incisures with distinct black dots." V. britannica has but two yellow dots on the scutellum, and no distinct black dots between the incisures of the abdomen; and Linnaeus would not have overlooked the large rufous patches which interrupt, laterally, the broad black band on the second segment of the abdomen of V. britannica. But I have no doubt Mr. Bigge overlooked the description, and relied solely on the situations selected for its nest, in which character I shall show it varies greatly, sometimes agreeing with, and at others differing from the Linnæan description.

In order to satisfy myself as to which was the true V. vulgaris, I took the whole of my collection of wasps to the Linnean Society's mu-