Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/199

Rh Neuter, (V. borealis?). Head black; scape of antennae beneath, a spot above the clypeus, a streak close to the inner, and another behind the eyes towards their upper margin, yellow; the clypeus yellow, with a black streak down the centre having an anchor-shaped termination; the mandibles yellow, their inner margin rufescent. The thorax as in V. borealis, with the addition of a narrow yellow streak below the two spots on the scutellum. The abdomen has a narrow black band at the base of all the segments, slightly dentate in the centre, the second broadest, a distinct separated black dot on each side of the remainder, except the apical one, which has a black line down the centre.

The nests of the tree-wasps are of a firmer texture than those of the ground-wasps, especially the combs: I have a portion of a nest of V. britannica which is particularly so: thus they are adapted to withstand the wind and rain to which they are, of necessity, exposed. I possess nests of two of the tree-wasps—V. britannica and V. holsatica; the former is about the size of a small orange, and the latter is only one inch in diameter, containing six cells; the foundress wasp was taken with the nest. The nest of V. britannica contains one layer of cells, thirty in number; nineteen contained pupae when taken: this agrees with the description of a nest given by Kirby and Spence, and which was, without doubt, the nest of a young community. The outer leaves or envelopes in these small nests are capable of being opened like the leaves of a half-blown rose; thus, when additional layers of combs are formed, they would be expanded, and would form the covering of the lower portion of the nest. I suspect that all the nests recorded as having been found of this small size, were found early in the summer, or, if later, that some accident had happened to the foundress; for the nests would not contain more than about two hundred cells, and it must be remembered that the cells differ in size, according to the sexes they are intended to contain: and until I see cells of females and males in these small nests, I shall be of opinion that they are only early stages of larger nests, and that we have no perfect society of social wasp in this country, the nest of which is never larger than an orange. J. Hogg, Esq., of Stockton-on-Tees, in a communication to the Entomological Society, mentions having found one of these small nests. He also states that he has taken one late in the season; but I still consider that the circumstance must be attributed to one of the causes stated above. All the females taken with these small nests which I have seen, were either V. britannica or V. holsatica.