roebuck: YORKSHIRE HYMENOPTERA IN 1878. 67 



Tribe ANTHOPHILA—Bees. 

 So far as my own observations are concerned, the season of 

 1878 has been a very bad one for bees, even the social ones being 

 greatly diminished in numbers, while the solitary bees were 

 almost non-existent. I am however informed by Mr. Talbot that 

 in the early spring a good harvest fell to him and Mr. Wilcock at 

 Woolley Edge. 



The names of the following species are mentioned solely for 

 the sake of providing materials for ascertaining the precise 

 geographical range of even the common species. 



Andrena fulva {Schrank). Eld wick Glen, near Bradford, 

 common, J. W. Carter ! 



Halictus albipes {Fab.) Huddersfield, $, (Bairstow). 



Bombus lucorum. Addingham ! Wetherby ! Bishop 

 Wood! &c. 



B. lapidarius. Collingham! Bishop Wood! 



In concluding this report I ought to justify the practice of 

 recording precise localities for abundant species. It however 

 seems to me that we are not justified in assuming that any species 

 ranges over a given area of country till we have recorded with 

 precision that it actually does occur at a great number of places 

 scattered over the whole of that area — or in other words that we 

 ought not to make generalizations without a sufficient basis of 

 facts. Hence it follows that a so-called abundant species must 

 be actually recorded for a large number of Yorkshire localities 

 before we can justly say that it ranges over the county. I shall 

 therefore be glad to have the assistance of the members in tracing 

 the actual distribution in our county of all our species of 

 Hymenoptera. 



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