(ee) 
III. A List of the Hymenoptera of New Zealand By 
W. F. Kirey, Assistant in the Zoological Depart- 
ment, British Museum. 
[Read February 2nd, 1881.] 
A snort time ago Mr. H. W. Marsden, of Gloucester, 
placed in my hands for examination a small collection 
of Hymenoptera, formed by Mr. W. J. Skelton, of Blen- 
heim, New Zealand, and this has led to my compiling 
the present list. 
The only lists of New Zealand Hymenoptera, which 
have hitherto appeared, are those published in 1846 in 
Dieffenbach’s work; and in 1874, by Professor Hutton, 
in the ‘Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,’ 
vol. vi. In the former work only six species are men- 
tioned; in the latter only twenty-three. The late Mr. 
F. Smith, who has described nearly all the Hymenoptera 
known from New Zealand at present, alludes to sixty- 
eight species as known to him at the end of 1877, when 
he read his last paper on the subject (Trans. Ent. Soc., 
1878, pp.1—7). He does not, however, enumerate them ; 
and I therefore thought it would be useful to publish as 
complete a list as I could prepare. It brings up the 
total number to eighty-one species (including the very 
doubtful Ophion luteus), an absurdly small total when 
we consider that we have from 8000 to 4000 species of 
Hymenoptera in Britain alone; the Hymenoptera being 
probably the most extensive of all the orders of insects, 
except, perhaps, the Diptera. As I can only regard this 
list as indicating the present extent of our ignorance of 
New Zealand Hymenoptera, I avoid entering into any 
generalisations whatever, and have confined myself to 
describing five conspicuous forms as new, and have 
refrained from describing any obscure species. I have 
added the descriptions of the few species described from 
New Zealand by Fabricius and Walker, as their works are 
not so generally accessible as those of other writers on 
New Zealand Hymenoptera. 
The following is a brief abstract of the species noticed 
in this list :— 
TRANS. ENT. Soc. 1881.—PaRT I. (APRIL.) 
