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XVII. Ammophlla, a new Genus of Infccis in the Clafs Hymenoptera, 

 including the Sphex fabulofa ofUnnaus. By the Rev. William Kirky, 

 F. L. S. 



Read December 5, 1 797. 



IN no department of the animal kingdom is the Divine Wifdom 

 more eminently confpicuous, than in the conftruclion and 

 ceconomy of the infect tribes ; and amongft thefe, none, perhaps, 

 are more worthy of our attention, on both thefe accounts, than the 

 individuals that compofe the clafs Hymenoptera. Though they do 

 not, like many of the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, immediately attract 

 our notice by the brilliancy or gaiety of their colouring (a), yet when 

 we examine them clofely, and obferve the confummate {kill mani- 

 fefted in their conftru&ion ; when we attend to their hiftory, replete, 

 be they gregarious or folitary, with entertaining anecdotes, and 

 furnilhing inftances of the mod aflonifhing fagacity and molt 

 prudent precaution ; we feel inclined to prefer the (rudy of this 

 order of infe&s to that of any other, not only as moft prolific of 

 materials to fet forth the praifes of Him who hath created them, 

 which is the firfl duty of theNaturalift— but alfo as gratifying, in a 



(a) Some of them, however, are -Angularly beautiful even in this refpe£t Take for 

 examples the Tenthredo niteriSj many of the Ichneumons of Linnseus's lafi family, and the 

 whole genus Ckrxfts. . 



C c 2 high 



