GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA. 17 



more or less builJers or upholsterers. The genus has a 

 wide range, and is tolerably numerous, numbering more 

 than fifty species. Some of our own occur throughout 

 Europe, and, like the two preceding genera, are found 

 in the highest continental latitudes. Some of ours also 

 occur in Algeria and the Canaries, other species in 

 Albania and Moravia. In Africa they are found in 

 "Egypt, Barbary, and Port Natal, and in the New World 

 from Florida, in the United States, through Nova Scotia 

 to Hudson's Bay. 



The genus Apathus, which is parasitical upon Bombus, 

 aud to the uninitiated has all the appearance of this 

 genus, seems to be the only instance of a parasitical 

 genus of bees so closely resembling the o-tro?, (as we 

 may, perhaps, for the sake of avoiding a periphrasis, be 

 allowed to call the bee upon which the parasite is found,) 

 as to be so easily liable to be mistaken for it, and which 

 was indeed the case by even such a sagacious entomo- 

 logist as the distinguished Latreille ; but Kirby had 

 already noticed the difference, suggesting its separation 

 from Bombus, until about the time that St. Fargeau was 

 induced to propose a distribution of the Hymenoptera, 

 based generally upon economy and habits, to which he 

 had been led by a refining investigation of structure, 

 that the distinguishing difierence was appreciated, and 

 used generically, by Mr. Newman. This difference, like 

 many other simple facts, now that it has been found, is 

 very obvious. It consists in the genus having no neu- 

 ters, and the female of the species no polliniferous 

 organs, but the determination of the legitimate males, by 

 means other than empirical, is still difficult. In our own 

 species this genus ranges throughout northern Europe, 

 as high as Lapland ; a cause for which we shall discover 



