258 Mr. E. Saunders' /jwi/ter notes on the 



value of the characters derived from the armature, as 

 no one can doubt that it is one of the best and most 

 natural groups that we have among the Hymenoptera, 

 and throughout it the armature has a distinct character 

 of its own quite unlike that of any other section. 



Anthophila. — In this section more attention has been 

 paid to the genital armature than in the others of the Acu- 

 leata, for, besides Dufour's excellent remarks, Schenck, 

 Thomson, and others have used it with good results, 

 as exhibiting characters for discriminating the species of 

 Bombus. Morawitz has figured, in the ' Eeise Turkestan 

 von A. Fedtschenko,' the armature of several species of 

 Antliophora, and v. Hagens, in the * Berliner Ent. Zeits,' 

 for 1874, has noticed and described the armature in 

 many of the genera, besides using it as a character for 

 the species of the genus Sj^hecodes. He speaks of the 

 " zangen " or stipites as being " eingliedrig " or " zwei- 

 gliedrig," his 2nd joint being the lacinia of Thomson. 



I have adopted Thomson's nomenclature for the parts 

 of the armature, as it seems to express very well what 

 is wanted. The lacinia is merely a prolongation or 

 branch of the stipes, and is often absent, and in some 

 species it is difficult to know whether one should desig- 

 nate it by a distinct name or merely treat it as a process ; 

 still in many genera, such as Bombus, Psithyrus, &c., 

 it is such a distinct feature that for descriptive purposes 

 a special name is useful. V. Hagens, in his remarks 

 {loc. cit.), mentions the " bauchsegmentverlangerung," 

 and describes it ; but it should be remembered that in 

 Andrena. &c., this represents the 8th segment, whereas 

 in Anthojjhora it represents the 7th. In Halictoides and 

 Dvfourea he mentions that the " bauchsegmentver- 

 langerung " is prolonged into three points. Here he 

 has evidently been examining the 7th and 8th together, 

 as the 7th bears two lateral processes and the 8th one 

 apical ; but, clinging tightly together as these two plates 

 do, it is in no way to be wondered at that v. Hagens 

 should have been misled. 



The lacinia is present in nearly all the genera with 

 the exception of Andrena and of those in the subdivision 

 Dasi/gastne, and, curiously enough, in the parasites or 

 "cuckoos" of these latter; but this does not aj)ply to 

 the parasites of Andrena, viz., the species of Nomada, 

 which have a distinct lacinia. Still it is worthy of note 

 that there is often an extraordinary general similarity in 



