62 BRITISH BEES. 



but nothing of any magnitude. There is much hope that 

 a great deal has been done in Ceylon by Mr. Thwaites, 

 who, when resident at Bristol, was a most ardent and 

 successful hymenopterologist. 



The Egyptian Hymenoptera have been extensively and 

 admirably figured by Savigny, in the Imperial superb 

 work published under the auspices of Napoleon I., but 

 to these, unfortunately, no descriptive text was pub- 

 lished, and they are therefore as useless to science as if 

 they had not been figured. But those collected by 

 Ehrenberg, and figured by King, in the ' Symbols 

 Physicse/ exhibit how rich in variety is that remarkable 

 region. These figures may be called the ne plus ultra 

 of entomological artistic skill. 



Unfortunately, this Order has been sadly neglected for 

 the sake of the less troublesome Coleoptera, and the more 

 conspicuous Lepidoptera. This is plainly perceptible 

 from the paucity of species recorded as having beeu once 

 in the Count Dejean's collection, where we might have 

 expected to have obtained a rich view of the Hymenoptera 

 of Spain; as also in those of other French collectors, 

 who have had rare but neglected opportunities for the 

 purpose. It is true M. Brulle has done a good deal in 

 Greece. We are, as yet, in comparative ignorance, from 

 the same cause of neglect, of the Hymenoptera of Italy, 

 excepting something that has been done by the Marquis 

 Spinola, in Liguria, and by Rossi, in Tuscany. A little 

 has been contributed towards that of Carniola, but we 

 are almost ignorant of the Hymenoptera of Sicily, which, 

 from various causes, are likely to be very peculiar. Mr. 

 Swainson's collection of them, although not numerous, 

 were neglected until they became unintelligible. The 

 only European countries that have been tolerably gleaned 



