110 HYMENOPTERA. 



approach to jocularity ; we must not forget certain hints 

 which have reached us of our having transgressed in this 

 particular on former occasions ; but an Annual does appear 

 to us to give a certain degree of licence, and if a quiet smile 

 or so should escape from us we plead in excuse that it is our 

 annual appearance, and we beg our readers to feel assured 

 that the fault is not ours : if this little work, instead of an 

 Annual, had been called a Register, not a spark of hilarity 

 had escaped from us. 



It will be seen that we have this season, as has indeed 

 been the case on former occasions, to depend principally on 

 our own resources, so few are our fellow-labourers, and our 

 own opportunities of out-door research so limited, that the 

 record of novelties must of necessity be brief. 



A few months ago we perused a most desponding article 

 on the " decline and fall" of Hymenopterology ; we have 

 better heart on this subject, and can assure the writer of the 

 episode that some young and studious hands are at work. To 

 the study of the Hymenoptera a large amount of patient 

 application is required, there is no branch of Entomology 

 indeed which can be thoroughly studied without, but that 

 of the Hymenoptera is beset with many difficulties from 

 which the student of other orders is comparatively free ; one 

 great difficulty in the discrimination of the species arises 

 from their liability to a total change of appearance from 

 exposure, many of the bees are extremely difficult to recog- 

 nise when bleached and faded in the sun, in fact they fre- 

 quently bear little resemblance to the beautiful insect which 

 first flitted from flower to flower before us. 



The Tenthredinidce and Ichneumonidce both await their 

 monographer ; a work on the Formicidce, Fossores and Ves- 

 pidce will shortly appear. 



