14 THE entomologist's recokd. 



also published many exceedingly interesting observations, though as 

 literature their writings cannot be compared with those of the 

 eloquent authors just mentioned. 



The study of British aculeates during this century has been carried 

 on by a succession of workers, only a few of whom naturally have 

 achieved fame beyond the Channel and the Atlantic. Exceptions are, 

 of course, the immortal Kirby, Shuckard ("oculatissimus Shuckardius" 

 as Dahlbom calls him) our first great authority on Fossoreii, Fred. Smith 

 of the British Museum who was writing constantly from about 1839 

 to 1879, and produced important works — with descriptions of many 

 new genera and species — dealing with the National Collections. The 

 only living English writer who has produced large and important 

 works on the subject, is my friend Mr. EdAvard Saunders, whom I 

 shall not be so impertinent as to praise in language of my own, but of 

 whose last work, Hipiienoptera Aculeata of the British Idands, I find 

 the following description in a new publication by Frey-Gessner of 

 Geneva (carum et venerabile nomen!): — " Ein vortreffliches Werk, 

 welches liber eine Eeihe Unsicherheiten friiherer Autoren, besonders 

 auch liber die Ansichten Fred. Smith's Klarheit bringt." 



The Century's work among the Chrysidae. 



By (Eev.) F. D. MOEICE, M.A., F.E.S. 



The progress made in the study of Chrysids during the nineteenth 

 century is so fully recorded by Mocsary (1889) in the lieccmio critica 

 prefixed to his well known Monograph, that no special research into 

 entomological antiquities is required from the present writer. 



In 1801 the name Chrj/sis (denoting, however, rather a group than 

 a true genus) had been known just 40 years. It was due to Linne 

 (1761), who applied it to five species, the first of which he had first 

 described as a bee — Apis (sic) iijnita — in 1735. During those 40 years 

 " new species " had been accumulating at the rate of not quite one per 

 annum. The grand total stood, in fact, at about 30, when the century 

 commenced. Now, at its close, we know about 30 times 30 — nearly if 

 not quite 900 ! 



Among the many authors who have contributed to this result the 

 name which claims first mention is certainly that of Dahlbom. Begin- 

 ning (1829) by describing the Chrysids of his own country, he pursued 

 his studies with ever increasing ardour, till, in 1854, they resulted in a 

 Avork on which, as on a foundation, all succeeding writers have built. 

 This was his Chri/sis in sennit Limiaeaua — the second volume of 

 Hiiiiicnoptcra Ihircalia. No praises can be too high for the vigour, the 

 industry, and the originality displayed in this truly epoch-making book. 

 Indeed it is only too original, for, in his intense devotion to his own 

 researches, he neglected to enquire what contemporary entomologists, 

 many of them by no means deserving such neglect, were doing in the 

 same field. Hence a considerable proportion of his " names " have 

 had to sink as synonyms. But he had the eye for structure of a 

 Kirby or a Thomson, he was a master in the art of constructing 

 synoptic tabulations, he was indefatigable in visiting and studying 

 the " types " preserved in public and private collections throughout 

 Europe, he either drew or caused to be drawn figures of really remark- 

 able excellence, and he had the power of writing in the liveliest and 



