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PAPERS READ. 



CATALOGUE OF THE DESCRIBED HYMENOPTERA 



OF AUSTRALIA. 



By Walter W. Froggatt. 



In issuing tliis catalogue the compiler knows that it must be 

 incomplete in many details, but hopes that, with all its defects, it 

 may be of some practical use as a guide to those wanting to know 

 what has been written, and where the information is to be found 

 referring to our bees, ants and wasps. While most of the other 

 lai'o-e orders of insects have received a considerable amount of 

 attention from writers on Australian Entomology, with the excep- 

 tion of the following writers, until quite recently, few others had 

 given more than a passing glance at our Hymenoptera. Professor 

 Westwood at a very early date described and nearly always added 

 coloured figures of many of our finest wasps, and has done a great 

 deal towards assisting students to work at this group. The late F. 

 Smith, Esq., of the British Museum has described an immense 

 number in the British Museum Catalogues and Proceedings of 

 Scientific Societies; his clear and concise descriptions render it 

 very easy to identify nearly all his species. While Henri de 

 Saussure in his fine Monographs of the Vespida? and other groups 

 has greatly advanced our knowledge of Australian Hymenoptera. 

 The writings of Walker on the parasitic wasps, and Mayr on the 

 ants must also be mentioned. 



That the hymenopterous fauna of Australia is very extensive 

 there is not the least doubt, for while possessing many genera 

 peculiar to this country, most of the larger exotic ones are also 

 represented. Yet there are several striking exceptions in genera 

 with an otherwise world-wide range, as Bombus and Osmia among 

 the bees, and Cimhex in the saw-flies. As might be expected in a 

 country abounding in sandy, scrubby plains, the fo.ssorial wasps are 



very numerous. 

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