i6o Mr. Camp:ron on 



is the new species of Ainpulex from Gibraltar, there 

 having been only one European species described, the genus 

 itself, too, being a remarkable one, and more representative 

 of tropical than of temperate regions. 



I have to express my indebtedness to Mr. J. J. Walker, 

 R.N., for a small, but highly interesting, collection of 

 Hymenoptera from Gibraltar ; to Mr. J. Helms, of Grey- 

 mouth, New Zealand, for an equally interesting collection 

 from his district, and to Mr. J. Cosmo Melvill for the curious 

 Bracon from Bogota. 



^ I may be allowed to make here some observations on 

 the question of the multiplication of "genera" in the 

 Hymenoptera, as it appears to me that the creation of so 

 many so-called "genera" may lead not only to confusion, but 

 may be even positively injurious to the progress of the 

 study of the Hymenoptera. 



The late Prof Arnold Foerster is the author who initiated 

 the principle of minute analytical analysis in splitting up 

 the old genera. That some of these genera may have been 

 rather too widely defined may be granted ; but it does not 

 follow that Foerster's system was an improvement. If 

 genera are to be formed, they should be defined, not as 

 regards the German species, but as regards the species from 

 all parts of the world. Once commence to define genera 

 from one or possibly two characters and you then find 

 yourself logically bound to the creation of an endless 

 number of genera. The objections to most of the genera 

 carried out on the Foersterian lines are that they do not 

 apply to exotic species, and further, that in many cases the 

 characters employed to define the genera are found to be 

 specific rather than generic when traced through a series of 

 species from all parts of the world. In working out the 

 parasitic Hymenoptera for the "BiologlaCentrall- Americana," 

 I endeavoured to arrange the species according to Foerster's 



