5174 Insects. 



covering of the whole to the situation in which she places her nest : 

 all is effected without the necessity of teaching or of seeing others 

 work in a like manner. The first individual which arrives at maturity 

 performs the same work in the same perfect and admirable manner : 

 the instinctive faculties with which the Creator has endowed them 

 enables them to build the cells in the utmost perfection, and 

 also enables them to select those materials which are best adapted 

 to their purposes. 



Frederick Smith. 



Hymenoptera obtained from dead Bramble-slicks. — Perhaps the following may be 

 worth insertion, as a useful and encouraging hint to young hymenopterists. Early in 

 March I employed a gardener to go to a locality where I knew brambles abounded to 

 search for pierced withered branches. He returned with some fifty sticks, which I 

 placed in a flower-pot covered over with gauze. Out of these have issued Ceratina 

 caerulea, male and female ; Osmia leucomelana, male and female ; Crabro tibialis 

 and C. rufiventris, male and female ; Trypoxylon attenuata, male and female; Chry- 

 sis cyanea, male and female ; Hedychrum auratum, male and female ; &c, &c. — 

 W. H. L. Walcott ; Clifton, Bristol, June 4, 1846. 



Notes on the Genus Haliplus. By John A. Power, M.D. 



I was induced to pen the following brief notes on the somewhat 

 difficult genus Haliplus in consequence of being frequently applied to 

 by my entomological friends for the species affinis, fluviatilis and con- 

 finis, which appear to be very general desiderata, but rather in conse- 

 quence of not being well understood than uncommon. I have recently 

 investigated them with some care, in their living state (a precaution 

 too much neglected in these aquatic tribes), at my favourite locality, 

 Cowley, near Uxbridge, and think that a few short remarks as to the 

 mode by which they are to be distinguished may not be unacceptable. 

 I do not pretend to give descriptions, for which I would refer to the 

 excellent French Fauna of Fermaire, which cannot be too strongly 

 recommended, but merely propose to point out the salient features by 

 which the more nearly allied species may be diagnosed. 1 have 

 adopted the nomenclature of the list recently published by the Rev. 

 Hamlet Clark. 



