ME. F. SMITH ON ACULEATE HYMEKOPTEEA. 109 



Notes on the Geograpliical Distribution of the Aculeate Hyme- 

 noptera collected by Mr. A. E. Wallace in the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago. By Feedeeick Smith, Esq., Assistant, Zoological 

 Department, British Museum. Communicated by W. W. 

 Saundees, Esq., F.E.S., V.P.L.S. 



[Read March 5, 1863.] 



Weee the student of the science of Entomology to start with the 

 intention of making himself intimately acquainted with all the 

 Orders of insects, and equally familiar with every species in those 

 Orders, he would be attempting a task too vast for the allotted 

 duration of human life, a space too brief to enable even the most 

 gifted and industrious inquirer to master a tithe of the subject 

 thus proposed to be carried out. 



Such being the case (and I believe no entomologist will dispute 

 the truth of the position), it becomes a necessity that the student 

 should restrict his researches to a portion only of the wide field 

 over which the science of entomology now ranges. Hence it has 

 become the practice of entomologists in many cases to confine 

 their studies to the fauna of their own country — some, and indeed 

 a very large majoritj^, studying onlj^ a single Order of that fauna 

 and finding even this amply sufficient to engross the whole of 

 their leisure time, whilst others, whose means in life are such 

 as to give full scope to their inclinations, devote themselves to 

 wider studies ; yet even in such cases it is found to be impera- 

 tively necessary that a single Order should be selected, should the 

 student propose to collect his materials from all quarters of the 

 globe. In this more extended area of investigation it is that the 

 student enters upon the enchanting field of geographical distri- 

 bution. Of all the sections into which the study of entomology 

 may be divided, there is none more alluring, and certainly none more 

 important and useful, than that which embraces a knowledge of 

 the geographical distribution of families, genera, and species. 



Before proceeding to remark upon the additional knowledge of 

 the Aculeate Hymenoptera that we have obtained through tlie 

 exertions of Mr. Wallace, it appears highly desirable that a short 

 survey should be made of the known geographical distribution of 

 some of the more extensive genera, and of the more remarkable 

 forms with which we were acquainted previously to Mr. Wallace's 

 explorations. 



The Ants are perhaps the most universally distributed insects 

 belonging to the tribe of the Aculeata; they are found in the 



LINN. PROC. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. VIT. 9 



