FIFTH VOLUME OF STEPHENS'S MANDIBULATA. 171 



by them, he will rise satisfied that he has identified his species, 

 or at least, that it is not described in their pages. Mr. 

 Stephens says, I have been " regardless " of a note appended 

 to the genus Amara in his Illustrations. I assure him I was 

 fully aware of that note, which, as I understood, and do still 

 understand it, has no reference to the difficulty of expressing 

 with distinctness specific differences, but of ascertaining the 

 number, and nomenclature, and location, of British insects 

 generally, and of the species of Amara in particular. 



The accuracy and precision of Gyllenhal's descriptions seem 

 fully admitted by Mr. Stephens, though accounted for by the 

 length of time that admirable author took to mature them. 



In reference to Kirby's unequalled performance, Mr. 

 Stephens says, " Although all his typical species may be 

 ascertained according to the remarks in the paper referred to, it 

 is stated by Mr. Shuckard, one of our best hymenopterologists, 

 in Vol. III. p. 92, of the same publication, that he cannot 

 ascertain above fifty species of Andrena and Nomada thereby." 

 Now, " in the paper referred to," no such words as "all his 

 typical species may be ascertained," nor any like them, as 

 quoted by Mr. Stephens, occur ! ! ! ! From what motive Mr. 

 Stephens has allowed himself to attribute to me words, and an 

 assertion certainly not employed or made by me, is best known 

 to himself. He has taken the trouble, too, of giving additional 

 emphasis to the passage, by printing all in italics ! ! ! ! 



My friend Mr. Shuckard's a testimony is of the highest 

 value ; and if he distinctly (for I do not understand his remark 

 in Vol. III., p. 92, exactly as Mr. Stephens interprets it,) 

 affirms that, from want of precision in the specific characters 

 given by Kirby, he is unable to ascertain above fifty species of 

 Andrena and Nomada, then I will readily allow the Monog. 

 Apum Angliae is much more imperfectly executed than ento- 

 mologists generally imagine. Mr. Stephens, with the view, I 



a In June of last year, during a collecting excursion to Hampstead, where, 

 by the way, I captured Astata boops, Hedychrun roseum, Methoca ichneumonides, 

 and several other reputed rare insects, Mr. Shuckard expressed his high 

 admiration of Kirby's accuracy; and I well remember he said he was quite 

 satisfied, that if anyone possessed an insect described in the Monog. Ap. Anglise, 

 he would be able to determine it most satisfactorily. See also Mr. Shuckard's 

 high encomium of the Monog. Ap. Anglise, in his paper on the Aculeate Hymen- 

 optem, published in the first part of the Transactions of the Entomological 

 Society, for 1835. 



