Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/197

Rh a bank at North End, Hampstead, and another in a similar situation opposite Sion House, near Richmond.

Female.—Length 7—8 lines. Head black; clypeus yellow, a black line down the centre terminating in a large anchor- shaped spot, the under side of the scapes, a crown-shaped patch between them, a narrow streak close to the eyes, another behind them at their upper margin, together with the mandibles, yellow, inner margin of the latter black; the antennae are more or less piceous beneath. Thorax black; the tegulae piceous; a line from them to the collar, a spot under the wings and two on the scutellum, yellow; wings slightly fuscous;

Vespa brittanica n male. o female. p neuter.

legs yellow, femora black towards their base; a black spot generally on the anterior and intermediate tibiae behind. The first segment of the abdomen has a black band at the base, slightly dentate in the centre, the second has a broad band, interrupted laterally by a large rufous patch, the remaining segments have black bidentate bands.

The Neuter is 5½—6 lines long. It corresponds with the female in its markings, but the abdominal segments have in some instances separated black dots.

Male.—Length 7 lines. Antennae filiform, scape yellow in front, the underside of the remaining segments piceous. The thorax has two spots on the scutellum, a line from the tegulae to the collar, and a spot under the wings, yellow; legs yellow, femora black, yellow at the knees. Abdomen as in the neuter.

I had a specimen of the neuter of this species given me as V. norvegica, which I think it cannot be, as all the describers of that species distinctly mention the immaculate scutellum, and all the sexes of V. britannica are distinctly bimaculate. Then it has been supposed to be the V. media of Latreille, and perhaps of De Geer, but it neither agrees with the figure nor the description of the latter author, and there is a specimen of the male in the British Museum, with a label attached, supposed to be in Latreille's hand- writing, which does not