Entomological Works. 377 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes Hyme'nopteres. Par M. 

 Le Compte A. LepeMetier de Saint Fargeau. 8vo. With a fas- 

 ciculus of plates. Paris, 1836. 



2. Clavis novi Hymenopterorum Systematise adjecta Synopsi 

 Larvarum ejusdem ordinis Scandinavicarum Eruciformium. A 

 Gustavo Dahlbom. 4to. With one coloured plate. Lund, 

 1835. 



3. Prodromus Hymenopterologice Scandinavicce. A Gustavo 

 Dahlbom. 8vo. With two plates. Lund, 1836. 



4. Essay on the indigenous fossorial Hymenoptera, comprising 

 a Description of all the British Species of burrowing Sand-Wasps 

 contained in the Metropolitan Collections, with their Habits, as 



far as they have been observed. By W. E. Shuckard, M.E.S. 

 London, 1837. 



5. Pompilidarum Danice Dispositio Systematica. Scripsit 

 Georgius Schiodte. 8vo. With one plate. Copenhagen, 1837. 



Of all the tribes of insects, or, indeed, we may safely say, 

 of animated nature in general, there are none which sur- 

 pass in point of interest, the very extensive group to which 

 Linnaeus applied the ordinal name of Hymenoptera. The 

 bee, the wasp, and the ant are too well known, as creatures 

 possessing in the highest degree that principle which is ordi- 

 narily termed instinct, and which prompts them, in proportion 

 to their size, to undertake labours far beyond those of any of 

 the higher animals. It is true that much has been ascertained 

 and made known relative to these creatures ; but there still 

 remain so many interesting points of enquiry, even in the 

 history of the best known species, the common hive-bee, that 

 it may safely be said, that it would require the entire attention 

 not of a single, but of many, lives, before we should be able 

 to assert that we had made ourselves perfectly acquainted with 

 the subject in all its bearings. The singular and anomalous 

 structures, which are of such frequent occurrence in the insects 

 of which the order is composed, the beauty and brilliancy of 

 colours of many, and above all, the diversity in their natural 

 economy, combine to render them general favourites with 

 entomologists. It is true, indeed, that in this respect they 

 cannot bear comparison with the Coleoptera ; but the works 

 at the head of our article will show that the study of this tribe 

 is fast gaining ground. 



The veteran Saint Fargeau, long known almost exclusively 

 as a hymenopterologist, has given us, in the first of the works 

 in our list, a portion of the results of a long series of observations 

 upon this order, following up the principle which he has in 

 numerous other works laid down ; namely, the superiority of 



