688 INSECTA. 



(ants and honey bees), or annual (humble bees and wasps). The second volume contains the solitary nest-making 

 species (the majority of the genera of Apidse and Andrenidae), and the parasitic bees as well as the solitary wasps. 

 The third volume (in which the author found it impossible to carry out his theory respecting the working or 

 parasitic habits of the species as exhibited by the structure of the fore legs of the female) contains the various 

 families of sand wasps, namely, the Crabronites, Bembecides, Sphegides, and Scoliides. including the Mutillidaa. 

 The fourth volume is by M. Brulle, M. Saint Fargeau, owing to his great age (—he is since dead)— having 

 renounced the authorship of the Terebrant Hymenoptera, and contains the families Chrysides, Ichneumonides, 

 Braconides, Evaniides, Chalcidites, Proctotrupides, Cynipides, Oryssides, Urocerides, and Teuthredinides. In this 

 volume the author has especially devoted his attention to the Ichneumonides and Braconides, in which families 

 a great number of new genera and species, for the most part exotic, are described. 



The Hymenoptera of Spain have been described by Erichson in Waltl's Travels ; those of Algeria in Wagner's 

 Travels, and many Australian species in Wiegmann's Archives ; and a considerable number of Spanish, 

 Egyptian, and Cayenne species by the Marquis Spinola, in the French Annales. The Symbolae Physical of Dr. 

 Klug contains a considerable number of beautiful Egyptian species. Many of the Tenthredinidaa have been 

 beautifully illustrated in Ratzeburg's Forst Insecten. Dr. Uartig's Blattwespen must also be studied. A remark- 

 able collection of Cocoons, of a Brazilian species, has been figured by Mr. Curtis in the Transactions of the 

 Linnaean Society, and the economy of several interesting species described by myself in the Gardener's Chronicle 

 for 1847 and 1848. 



Memoirs on the Evaniida; by Mr. Shuckard, in the Zoologist, and by myself in the Trans. Entomol. Society 

 must be referred to. The Belgian Ichneumonidae have been investigated by Professor Wesmael in the Transactions 

 of the Berlin Academy. The Ichneumonida; have also formed the subject of one of the volumes of Ratzeburg's fine 

 work on the Forst Insecten. An interesting paper on the Economy of the Ichneumonidae, especially with reference 

 to the species of insects upon which each subsists, is given by Boye in Kroyer's Natural History Tidsskrift, Vol. 

 III. The genus Alysia has been revised by Mr. Ilaliday in his usual careful manner. The Cynipidae have been 

 studied by llartig in Germar's Zeitschrift, and Dahlbom in his " Onychia and Collaspidia," and various new 

 genera proposed. The Chalcidida? have been reviewed by Forster in his " Beitrage zur Monographic der 

 Pteromalinen," Part I., and by Mr. Walker in "Monographs on the Chalcididae," published in two volumes, and 

 in detached articles in the various Natural History periodicals. Many of the species are beautifully figured in 

 Ratzeburg's Forst Insecten, and outline figures of the British genera are given in the Entomologist, drawn by 

 Mr. Ilaliday. 



Many species of Chrysididae have been described by Guerin, in the Revue Zoologique, and by Dr. Klug, in the 

 Symboke l'hysicae. A synopsis of this family is given by the latter in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy. 



The Linmran genus Sphex, has been revised by Dahlbom in his excellent work entitled " Hymenoptera Eu- 

 roprca prxcipue Borealia, <fec, disposita atque descripta," in which the sand wasps are distributed into the ten 

 followin" families. — 1. Sphccidae. 2. Ampulicida;. 3. Pompilidae. 4. Larridae. 5. Nyssonidae. 6. Bembecidae. 

 7. Philanthidas. 8. Mellinidie. 9. Pemphredonidae ; and 10. Crabronidae. A vast number of new species, and 

 many new genera are described in this work. Some new genera allied to Chlorion are illustrated l>y me, in the 

 Arcana Entomologica. 



The Mutillidae of New Holland are illustrated in my Arcana Entomologica, as well as the Dorylidae, and a 

 great number of new species of Thynnidae. Monographs on the latter family have also been published by Dr 

 Klug and M. Guerin. Mr. Shuckard also published a monograph on the Dorylidae, in the Annals of Natural 

 History. Observations on the habits of various species have also been published ; by L. Dufour, on Cerceris bu- 

 presticida, Ann. Sciences Natur., XV ; by Siebold, on Oxybelus uniglnmis ; and by Passeriui, on Scolia, with a 

 supplement detailing the interesting economy of the large Italian species. 



A paper by myself, on some new genera of Ants, has appeared in the Annals of Natural History, and Mr. 

 White has published some interesting observations on a Brazilian species of Wasp, which collects honey, in the 

 same work. Mr. Curtis has also described some Wasps in the Trans. Linn. Soc, 



A valuable series of papers containing descriptions of the British species of Bees, has been published by Mr. 

 F. Smith, in the Zoologist, and one on the genus Hylaeus, in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of 

 London. The Natural History of Osmia, Ceratina, Stelis, and other Bees, has been given by L. Dufour, in the 

 Annals of the French Entomol. Society. A paper on the economy of the Brazilian Meliponites, has been pub- 

 lished by Spinola, in the Annales des. Sci. Nat. 



THE ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. (P. 603.) 



The classification of this order has received much attention since the publication of our former edition. 

 A discussion of considerable extent has been carried on between Messrs. Duponchel and Guenee as to the relative 

 importance to be given to the characters of the insect in its preparatory states, or to those derived from the 

 imago. M. Boisduval has adopted both these views to a certain extent in his several works. The distribution of 

 the order into three primary divisions has been rejected by the last-named author, as well as the names Diurna, 

 Crepuscularia, and Nocturna, by which they were known. In his " Histoire Naturelle des Insectes Lepidopteres," 

 he has employed for the first of these three groups the name of Rhopalocera, first proposed by Dumeril for the 

 butterflies, and being unable to discover any real limits for the two other Latrellian groups, he has united them 

 together under the name of Heterocera. from the varied structure of the antennae. The same method is also 

 adopted by Boisduval in his " Genera et Index Methodicus Europaiorum Lepidopterorum," 8vo, 1840. In the 

 former of these works he divides the butterflies as follows : — 



