14S HYMENOPTERA OF AMERICA. [PART I. 



or verv elongate, naked, with white ornaments (totonacus, chi- 

 chimecus, etc.). But numerous species have also the normal 

 forms. 



e. In the United State?, oriental side, the Odyneri and all the 

 Vespidae take the same characters as in Europe, as to forms and 

 coloration ; except that the wings are more obscure. 



f. In the prairies of the southwest, the colors grow pale; the 

 black passes into ferruginous. 



g. On the occidental coast the yellow ornaments become 

 bright sulphur-yellow and extend over a great part of the body. 



These considerations of the ge f the species, and con- 



versely on the modifications which follow their distribution, have 

 been too much neglected up to this day. They have a high 

 importance in the study of the origin of species, and they require 

 the attention of. entomologists, who alone can fix them, for only 

 those who have much to do with numerous insects can make the 

 frequent and minute observations which enable one to generalize 

 rules of any value. And if entomology does not do its share in 

 helping to elucidate the questions of natural philosophy, it will 

 be a mere amusement of amateurs and will fall to the lowest rank 

 of the science. 



Classification. — Notwithstanding the vastness of the genus 

 Odynerus and the various forms which it offers, one cannot well 

 arrange its species according to Sections, which are easy to dis- 

 cover. This results, first from the multiplicity of the transitions 

 which almost insensibly ally each form with several others, and 

 often conduct from one form to another in various ways : it results 

 also from the multitude of details of form which make their appear- 

 ance in the same series, creating a great perplexity in subordi- 

 nating the characters to a system. Far from being able to 

 establish large divisions, to be subdivided according to a regulai 

 succession, one gets lost in numberless details and exceptions 

 which quite disorganize the subdivisions, so that it can only be 

 defined by loose indications in which the reader becomes lost. 

 This I must say for excuse, if I have not given better character- 

 istics. 



The evil would be perfectly irremediable in a general system 

 of the Odyneri, in which the complication would become quite a 

 sort of chaos, as each continent possesses its series of special 

 forms, with numerous ramifications, beside the general series 



