BEES IN BRITISH MUSEUM. 309 



NOTES ON SOME BEES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



As is well known to all Hymenopterists, the British Museum con- 

 tains one of the most valuable collections in this group in existence, 

 notwithstanding the fact that it has received little attention during 

 recent years. The ants, at the present time, are being carefully put 

 in order by Colonel Bingham ; but the bees have never been 

 rearranged since the death of Mr. F. Smith, about twenty-six 

 years ago. To bring the collection of bees into harmony with mod- 

 ern ideas, and to incorporate and identify the great accumulations 

 at present crowded unarranged in the accession drawers, would be a 

 gigantic but most interesting task. No doubt there are hundreds of 

 new species waiting to be described by anyone who has the time 

 and ability to take them in hand. Some of the material comes from 

 the most out-of-the-way regions, and will throw much light on prob- 

 lems of geographical distribution ; some belong to genera of which 

 many Apidologists have never seen a specimen. 



During my short recent visit to the Museum I naturally gave 

 most of my attention to the types of F. Smith, of which no less 

 than 238 belong to North American species. The descriptions of 

 many of these, though good for the time when they were written, 

 are inadequate for modern requirements. Characters which amply 

 distinguished a given species from all then known, may be found 

 today to be common to two or more species, which must be separa- 

 ted by other more subtle marks. Hence it seemed desirable to take 

 notes on most of the North American species, for the purpose of 

 more accurately fixing their identity. At the same time, notes were 

 made on many others, and especially on some of the rare and inter- 

 esting genera which I had never seen before. It is hoped that all 

 these will be found of interest to American and other Apidologists, 

 but of course it will be recognized that they represent only a small 

 part of the work which needs to be done upon the types in the 

 British Museum. I am greatly indebted to Mr. W. F. Kirby and 

 Colonel Bingham for their kindness to me during ray visits to the 

 Museum. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XXXI. AUGUST, 1905. 



