J 24 fAMlum. 



lobes. The apex also of its valvulae Is semisaglt- 

 tate (k) ; besides, its general habit will at first sight 

 evince its difference from all ^pes. 



Having done with the generic characters of 

 Melitta and Apis, I am now to proceed to the 

 mention of those distinctions which divide them 

 into families. In this part of my undertaking my 

 aim has not been so much to fix upon artificial 

 characters, which often disunite those insects which 

 nature has put together, but to discover whether 

 the ALL WISE AUTHOR of nature, who is a God 

 of order, has not subdivided these genera, and 

 impressed certain common characters upon such 

 subdivisions, by which one who studies his works 

 under no influence but the love of truth, and led 

 by the single desire of finding out his system, 

 might be enabled to arrange them according to 

 their natural affinities. 



My first step was to place together all those 

 individuals, which appeared to me to agree in 

 habit, adopting the sentiment of Linneus, that 

 habit would often lend a clue to discover nature (/). 

 At first, of course, I made many mistakes, often 

 placing, as all who, with Fabricius, rely solely on 

 habit for the arrangement of species, will inevitably 

 do, the males in one subdivision, and the females 



{k) Tab. 14, n. 9, vviUi Tab. 5—13. 



(/) Halitus, uti in quadrupedibiis dis tin guitf eras a pecorilns 

 quamvis denies non inspicerentur, sic etiam in plantis scepius 

 harum ordines naturales primo intuitu manifestat. Lin. Philos, 

 Bot. § 163. 



in 



