PREFACE. 
Ir is with diffidence that I present myself before the En- 
tomological public; but having paid much attention for 
some time past to the aculeate Hymenoptera, and having 
assiduously collected our native species, a collection has 
grown upon my hands, and observations have accumu- 
lated upon their habits and distinctions, that I have been 
induced to yield, perhaps too easily, to the persuasions of 
friends to present British Entomologists with the fruits 
of my labour,—truly a labour of love,—with the hope 
that it may incline them to look about, and give some 
portion of their zeal to a tribe of insects which merit 
it certainly as much as many others that have hitherto 
almost exclusively absorbed their attention. 
My own success within a limited district justifies the con- 
clusion that our country is much richer in these insects than 
has been suspected. I feel convinced that when distant 
and different localities are well searched many decidedly 
new species will be discovered, as I have seldom examined 
