66 BRITISH BEES. 



to our own islands possibly arises from the fact of spe- 

 cial attention having been paid to them in this country 

 only. 



The genus itself, in other and more variegated forms 

 than ours, presents itself in some portions of southern 

 and south-western Europe, where the highly ornamented 

 species would point almost to the certainty of its being 

 a parasitical genus, great decoration being in our native 

 genera of bees the badge of parasitism, and may be in- 

 dicative of those habits, combined as they are conjunc- 

 tively with their destitution of polliniferous organs. 

 Some of our native entomologists have, however, as- 

 sumed, upon what appears to me very inconclusive 

 grounds, that the genus is not parasitical. The obser- 

 vations, however, of the most distinguished French hy- 

 menopterologists confirm the notion of their being para- 

 sites, which appears strengthened by the argument above 

 suggested with regard to colour. 



This genus is apparently fond of hot climates. In 

 eastern Europe, it occurs in Albania and the Morea, its 

 extreme western domicile is Portugal, and its southern 

 European habitat is Sicily. It is found in Algeria and 

 Egypt, and at the Cape of Good Hope. We discover it in 

 India, in the southern tropics at the Brazils, and in the 

 northern tropics at the Sandwich Islands ; and it ranges 

 along the southern edge of Australia, from Swan River 

 through Adelaide and Port Phillip to Tasmania. The 

 United States of North America furnish it, and on that 

 continent it seems to contradict its ordinary tropical 

 inclination by being exceptionally found upon the con- 

 fines of the arctic circle at Hudson's Bay. Nearly sixty 

 well-distinguished species are recorded. 



The genus SPHECODES has also a wide distribution. 



