48 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



itself is natural and well defined, yet the known 

 species are not as yet all distributed into natural 

 genera. To discover a natural genus is, however, 

 no very difficult task. Insects that agree in habit 

 are soon detected, and when these are placed to- 

 gether, an attentive comparison of them, and 

 inspection of their parts, will soon enable any 

 philosophical entomologist, especially if he has any 

 knowledge of their general economy, to trace out 

 those common characters which nature has irl^ 

 scribed upon such as are nearly related. The con- 

 necting links between two proximate genera, which 

 usually borrow their characters from both, will give 

 some trouble, but if he follow the lead of the 

 Essential Character, " Notam generi maxime pro- 

 priam tradens" he will not be long at a loss to 

 which he is to refer any species of this description. 

 In order to shew what may be done in this class, 

 I shall, in the following pages, endeavour to divide 

 into natural genera and families the numerous 

 species of the Linnean genus y^pis ; such, I mean, 

 as are natives of this country, including Hykeus, 

 Andrena, Apis, Nomada, and Eucera of Fabricius : 

 but I shall previously conclude these introductory 

 remarks with some account of what has been done 

 in it by my predecessors. 



Before the time of Linneus, naturalists seem to 

 have had little or no idea of constructing generic 

 characters. In the present class, however, as be- 

 fore observed, Ray has attempted this, and with as 



much 



