GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 65 



that its omission in any instance is to be regretted, as 

 in many ways, and in all kinds of collections, it might 

 be very serviceable to science. To our present purpose 

 it has but a collateral interest as an object of curiosity, 

 yet curiosity has led to many discoveries which have 

 proved valuable to mankind. All the divisions of natu- 

 ral science have a mutual and convertible bearing, and 

 closely interlink in their relations. Thus, insects de- 

 note the botany, which further indicates the climate or 

 elevation and soil; and the superficial soil will point 

 geological conclusions to subsoil and substructure. One 

 natural science well mastered gives a key to the great 

 storehouse of nature's riches, and yields a harvest of 

 many different crops. This episode may be excused 

 for the hint it is intended to give of the paramount im- 

 portance of the correct registration of special localities. 



The genus Colletes also occurs in the Canary Islands, 

 which shows a trending tendency to its southern ha- 

 bitat at the Cape of Good Hope. It occurs on the west- 

 ern edge of South America, in Chili ; it is found on its 

 northern boundary in Columbia, and has been disco- 

 vered in the southern States of North America, in Flo- 

 rida and Georgia ; but there is no record of its further 

 northern occurrence upon that continent. About thirty 

 species are known. 



The genus PROSOPTS, or as it is more familiarly known 

 by the name of HYL.EUS, is found in some of our native 

 species throughout France and Germany, and, like the 

 preceding, as high up as Finland, through Denmark and 

 Sweden, to the adjacent parts of Russia. It is remark- 

 able that it is caught in Algeria, although not recorded 

 as occurring in several of the southern European States. 

 But the apparent restriction of some of our species 



F 



