60 HYMENOPTERA. \ 



i 



once plead " not guilty :" let it be our endeavour to examine \ 

 the nature of the evidence, as produced in the paper in ques- 

 tion, without bias, and possibly we may be able to ascertain 

 to whom the charge most truly applies. 



It has been the o-ood fortune of Dr. Rosfer to have a 

 number of the Fabrician type specimens of Forniicid<B \ 

 entrusted to him by the authorities of the Copenhagen 

 Museum ; the examination of these has enabled him to make 

 known to Hymenopterists, the modern genera to which the j 

 species belong ; he has also discovered that several of the i 

 species have been re-described by myself under specific i 

 names of my own. I scarcely think it can be necessary for ! 

 me to say that this was unavoidable ; many of the Fabrician 

 descriptions do not consist of more than a few words, and | 

 even the more extended descriptions are frequently of so ] 

 general a character, that it would baffle Dr. Roger's, or even I 

 a Nylander's powers, to discriminate the species with the aid I 

 of the descriptions alone. Dr. Roger has conferred a great ; 

 benefit on science by making known to Hymenopterists, the ; 

 genera to which we are to refer so many of the Fabrician 

 species, and I am sure every Hymenopterist in Europe M^ill, 

 with myself, accord to him their best thanks ; I accept without 

 reservation every correction made through the medium of | 

 the Fabrician types; Dr. Roger's knowledge of the For- ! 

 micidce is too profound to admit of the possibility of any 

 error occurring as regards such species, but I certainly do 

 hesitate to accept, without a careful examination on ray own \ 

 part, the conclusions at which Dr. Roger has arrived as 

 regards those species, for the determination of which, he had ; 

 the help of descriptions alone. \ 



I have here only to do with one species, the Myvmica | 

 molesta of Say ; I will briefly state my reasons for having I 

 adopted this name, in preference to the very characteristic \ 



