326 VARIETIES. 



had been the opposite sex to mine, of which I have seen four, 

 I should have suspected that they might be one species, but, 

 even then, I should not have been justified in making them so 

 with the above differences ; and Dalman does not mention any 

 varieties, neither do mine vary. 



To J. C. Dale, Esq. J. CURTIS. 



[Our valued friends, Messrs. Dale and Curtis, can do us no 

 more acceptable service, nor any for which we shall feel more 

 truly obliged, than in thus pointing out what they consider our 

 errors : their great experience will, among Entomologists, 

 ensure respect for their opinions. Mr. Dale has entered into 

 argument with us somewhat largely on the mode of our 

 reviewing Mr. Curtis's work — this we suppress ; but we have 

 extracted, verbatim, all the supposed errors in our review 

 which he points out; thus the reader will have both sides 

 before him, and may judge for himself. We think Mr. Dale 

 should, in the case of Asiraca, Carabus, and Lasioglossum, 

 have given proofs of our being wrong ; the simple assertion 

 will, we fear, hardly carry conviction to the general reader. — 

 Ed.] 



29. Stijlops Melittce. — On the 5th May, I took a male 

 specimen of Andrena nigro-cenea, which was very evidently 

 infested by a Stylops. I brought the bee home alive, and 

 placed it, with flowers, beneath a tumbler ; next morning I 

 had the satisfaction to see that the parasite had emerged, and 

 was in perfectly good condition. An examination of its 

 thoracic segments has led me to the following conclusions: 

 1st. that the prothorax is a very slender segment, almost lost 

 in the mesothorax, as in Diptera ; 2dly. that the mesothorax 

 is the same lai'ge and conspicuous segment as in Lepidoptera, 

 Diptera, and Hymenoptera, having its scutellum (I use this 

 word as it is usually understood in Diptera) remarkably 

 elongate and developed: this segment bears the pseudelytra 

 on its anterior portion laterally, yet the prothorax is so small 

 that they appear to originate close behind the head ; they 

 appear the precise analogues of the tippets of Lepi- 

 doptera, and behind them originate the fore wings, which are 

 large and spreading, and fold longitudinally : the metathorax 



