18G4.] 243 



as an imitative or " synthetic" type of Bomhus, observes that " Laphria 

 closely apes the humble-bee in its form, coloration, size and flight, even 

 to the buzz which is, if anything, still louder. * * The plump bee- 

 like form and the dense yellow and black hirsuties, which cause them 

 to be mistaken for humble-bees by persons unacquainted with their 

 structural diiferenees, are just those features that are exceptional in 

 the Diptera and are normal in the Hymenoptera." But, Isf, a 

 "plump, bee-like form" is by no means universal in all Laphria, as 

 may be seen at once from the figures in the sixth Plate in Say's Works. 

 2nd. The colors yellow and black are by no means universal in all 

 Bomhus. Several European species, e. g. B. lapidarius Fabr., are ru- 

 fous and black, and a dozen N. A. species described in Mr. Cresson's 

 Paper are partly reddish, '^rd. The colors yellow and black are by no 

 means universal in all Laphria. In some, e. g. L.fidvicauda Say and L. 

 saniosa Say, the colors are fulvous and black or sanguineous and.black, 

 and some are all black with short cinereous hairs, as L. dorsata Say 

 and L. macrocera Say. 4<A. " Hirsuties" is by means universal in all 

 Laphria. L. dorsata Say, as may be readily seen from Say's figure, 

 is nearly smooth. Mr. Packard seems to have had in his mind only 

 two or three species of Laphria — thoracica Fabr., Jiavicollis Say and 

 tergissa Say, the last of which certainly "buzzes" very much like a 

 Bomhus — when he established his sweeping generalizations, bth. In- 

 stead of " hirsuties" being the rule in Hymenoptera it is the exception, 

 neither would it be a very easy matter to prove that there are more 

 hairy species in Hymenoptera than in Diptera, especially if we take into 

 account the extensive bristly family of Tachinadse. The great bulk of 

 Hymenoptera, whether we consider the number of genera or of species, 

 belong to the Parasitic families, Ichueumonidse, Chalcididse, Proetotru- 

 pidae, &c., and I do not know a single species of them that is at all 

 hairy. The only hairy Tenthredinidous genus that I am acquainted 

 with is Trichiosoma. Uroceridse and Ci/nipidse are none of them hairy, 

 nor, so far as I am aware, are any of the Fossorial Wasps or the Ants 

 or the true Wasps hirsute, except a few Scoliidse and MutiUidse, which 

 are slightly so. Even among the bees, which Mr. Packard seems to 

 have had exclusively in view, there are, as is well known, whole groups 

 which have no "hirsuties" whatever. Neither is it the case, if we 

 look through all the families, that "plumpness" is any more charac- 



