HYMENOPTERA-ACFLEATA. 365 



have had the kind and generous assistance of Mr. Edward 

 Saunders, F.L.S., in this matter, which is hereby grate- 

 fully acknowledged. 



In order to make a mere list of more interest to local 

 entomologists who have as yet had no experience of the 

 Aculeata, and who it is hoped may be induced to pay some 

 attention to them in the future, a brief resume of the 

 interesting habits of the British genera is, by suggestion, 

 included with the following records of our local species. 

 For this the writer acknowledges much indebtedness to 

 the works of Mr. Edward Saunders, Professor Perez, 

 Schuckard, F. Smith, and others, and also to various con- 

 tributors to the " Ent. Mon. Magazine." 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATOLOGY. 



Physically our two counties of Lancashire and Cheshire 

 consist chiefly of that extension of the great midland 

 plain of England called the Western Plain, a long tract of 

 level country lying between the high watershed of the 

 Pennine Chain in the east and the Irish Sea and the 

 mountains of Wales on the west. The limits of our 

 faunistic district are thus roughly speaking natural ones. 

 This broad plain is only broken by a few rocky ridges and 

 hills cropping up here and there in heights varying from 

 '°>00 to 000 feet ; but along its eastern borders and in the 

 north the continuous highlands become mountainous, and 

 occasionally attain an altitude of as much as 1,900 feet. 



I. — As regards its solid geology, the district mainly 

 consists of sandstones of the Triassic age, varied in places 

 by both newer and older formations. Along the eastern 

 borders of Cheshire and projecting into the centre of South 

 Lancashire, the older coal measures occupy the ground. 

 From beneath these, again, the millstone grit crops Tip 

 among the hills along the extreme eastern edge of the two 



