vi PREFACE. 



tbe "Annals of Botany," observations on "Flowers aad 

 Insects in Great Britain," giving the names of the insect 

 visitants of the various flowers in the localities where they 

 have been able to make observations. 



The principal works on the Hymenoptera Aculeata of 

 this country are the following: — 



Kirby, " Monographia Apum Anglise (1802)/' the classical 

 work on the British Anthophila; Shuckard, "Essay on 

 the Indigenous Fossorial Hymenoptera," 1837; F. Smith, 

 " Catalogue of British Hymenoptera, in the Collection of 

 the British Museum, Part I., Apidse," 1855, and 2nd 

 edition of the same, 1876; " Catalogue of British Fossorial 

 Hymenoptera Forraicidse and Vespidce," in the same col- 

 lection, 1868; E. Saunders, "Synopsis of the British 

 Hymenoptera" Heterogyna, and Fossores, Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 Lon. 1880, pp. 20L-300; Biploptcra and Andrenidse, ibid., 

 1882, pp. 165-290; Apida% ibid., 1884, pp. 159-250. The 

 above works give descriptions of all the British species 

 known at the dates of their publication. Besides these 

 strictly technical treatises, the Rev. W. Farren White has 

 published, without date, a volume entitled " Ants, and 

 their Ways," which gives a popular account of the habits 

 of the ants of the British Isles, and, in an appendix, short 

 descriptions of the species ; and Shuckard, in 1866, pub- 

 lished his " British Bees," a semi-popular work, giving 

 descriptions of the various genera of the Anthophila, with 

 copious notes on Labits, &c., illustrated with coloured 

 plates. 



Very many interesting observations and experiments on 

 instincts and faculties are recorded by Sir John Lubbock, 

 in tbe Journal of the Linnean Society 1874-81, and in 

 his well-known popular work, " Ants, Bees, and Wasps," 

 published in 1882. 



Of Continental works, other than monographs on special 

 groups, the only one likely to be of use in the determina- 

 tion of the British aculeates is C. G. Thomson's " Hymen- 



