Insects. 7075 



prove interesting to the readers of the ' Zoologist' generally ; but when- 

 ever the time may arrive in which the Aculeate Hymenoptera receive 

 their due share of entomological research, my labours on the genus 

 Bombus will be found, I trust, to have been not altogether prosecuted 

 in vain. 



Since the commencement of this paper my esteemed correspondent, 

 Mr. Charles Drewsen, has forwarded me his collection of Bombi from 

 Copenhagen ; in my communications I had mentioned my intended 

 revision : for this liberal and voluntary assistance, not my thanks alone, 

 but that of every Hymenopterist in the country is due. I am now- 

 enabled to speak and to make corrections with a confidence I could 

 not otherwise have assumed. 



I have not had occasion to make any alteration in the synonymy of 

 the genus Apathus, that which I gave in the 'Monograph on the Bees 

 of Great Britain' being, as I believe, correct : M. Drewsen thinks there 

 is a fifth species, the male being the A. Francisanus of Kirby, and the 

 female what I consider nothing more than a variety of Apathus cam- 

 pestris : this point will perhaps be more- thoroughly investigated by 

 some future Hymenopterists. 



1. B. Muscorum, Fabr. Si/sf. Piez. 349, 32. DaJdh. Bomb. Scand. 



46, 27. Drews. & Schiddte, Bomb. Kroy. Tidsskr. ii. 108, 2. 



Smith, Bees Great Brit. 212, ]. Nyl. Ap. Bor. 228, 4. 

 Apis Muscorum, Linn. Faun. Siiec. No. 1714. 

 Bombus Mniorum, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 350, 40 (var. §). Drews, d 



Schiodte, t. 2, i. a,b. 

 Bombus senilis, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 352, 50, ^ , 

 Bombus pygmseus, Fabr. Syst. Piez. 353, 54, ^ . 

 Apis floralis, Kirby, Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 321, 76, 5 . Apis Beckwith- 



ella, Kirby, 323, 78, $. Apis Agrorum, Kirby, 326, 81, ?. 

 Apis Sowerbyana, Kirby, 322, 77, <y. Apis Curtisella, Kirby, 324, 



79, $ . {var). 

 Apis Francillonella, Kirby, 319, 75, 5 . Apis Forsterella, Kirby, 325, 



80,^. 



The B. Mniorum is a remarkable variety, which, I am informed by 

 M. Drewsen, is not uncommon in Denmark : this form is nearly 

 approaching to blackness in all the sexes ; in England I have only 

 seen an approach to it in the workers. The B. senilis of Fabricius, 

 I am informed by Dr. Nylander, who has examined the typical speci- 

 men in the Museum at Kiel, is a small variety of this species ; the 

 synonym, B. pygmaeus, is added on the same authority. I have 



