{eTos' .} 
XVI. Ammophila, a new Genus of Infecis in the Clafs Hymenoptera, 
including the Sphex fabulofa of Linnaeus. By the Rev. William Kirby, 
F.L.S. 
Read December 5, 1797. 
N no department of the animal kingdom i is the Divine Wifdom 
more eminently confpicuous, than in the conftruction and 
ceconomy of the infect tribes; and amongft thefe, none, perhaps, 
are more worthy of our attention, on both thefe accounts, than the 
individuals that compofe the clafs Hymenoptera. Though they do 
not, like many of the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, immediately attract 
our notice by the brilliancy or gaiety of their colouring (2), yet when 
we examine them clofely, and obferve the confummate fkill mani- 
fefted in their conftruction ; when we attend to their hiftory, replete, 
be they gregarious or folitary, with entertaining anecdotes, and 
furnifhing inftances of the moft aftonifhing fagacity and moft 
prudent precaution ; we: feel inclined to prefer the ftudy of this 
order of infeéts to that of any other, not only as moft ‘prolific of 
materials to fet forth the praifes of Him who hath created them, 
which is the firft duty of the Naturalift—but alfo as gratifying, in a 
(a) Some of them, however, are fingularly beautiful even in this refpe&t. Take for 
examples the Tenthredo nitens, ras of the Ichneumons of Linnzus’s laft family, and the 
whole genus Chrofis, 
Cc2 high 
