HYMENOPTERA. 
411 
prepared with the greatest care, and will prove indispensable to 
the student of European Hymenoptera. It is, however, some- 
what unequal in its execution; certain groups (and these are 
among the best known, such as the Tenthredinidse, Fossorial 
Hymenoptera, and Anthophila) are treated in great detail, 
even the German species being described, whilst the generic 
analysis of the Proctotrupidae is altogether omitted. The species 
referred to are more particularly those found in the vicinity of 
Halle. The principal works relating to each family are parti- 
cularly referred to. In the introduction to each family the 
special terminology employed in characterizing the genera and 
species belonging to it is explained and illustrated by woodcut 
outlines of the wings and other parts. 
Shuckard, W. E. British Bees : an introduction to the study 
of the Natural History and economy of the Bees indigenous 
to the British Islands. I2mo. 1866. London, Reeve, 
pp. 371, 16 plates. 
This little volume, which belongs to the same series as the 
works on British Spiders and British Beetles already noticed, is 
intended as a popular guide to the knowledge of the British 
Bees. It contains a general account of the natural history of 
the insects of the family Anthophila, a description of the struc- 
tm’e and development of these insects, a sketch. of the geo- 
graphical distribution of the British and of some of the more 
striking foreign genera, an account of the parasites of Bees, and a 
classification of the genera of the family, with descriptions of the 
natural history of their members, and lists of the British species. 
Throughout the work the author^s leading rule appears to have 
been to take as little notice as possible of the writings of Frederick 
Smith : the existence of this distinguished Hymenopterologist is 
just noticed in the chapter on the scientific cultivation of Bri- 
tish Bees but in other places, as in the account of the geo- 
graphical distribution of the family, although there is sufficient 
evidence that SmitlFs works have been laid under contribution 
by the author, we find him studiously kept out of sight. In the 
lists of species there is scarcely an alteration in nomenclature 
from that adopted in Smithes catalogue, and even the synonymy 
might all be derived from that source ; but 33 species described 
in it by Smith are suppressed bodily, with no indication of their 
being referred to other species as synonyms, and it is remarkable 
that 27 of these species are to be quoted as of Smith. The intro- 
ductory chapters are a good deal spun out, and contain some sin- 
gular geological and anthropological statements. The account of 
the Strepsiptera also contains the following curious remark : — 
“ Their natural history is but imperfectly known, and I believe 
the males have not yet been discovered. Shuckard proposes a 
new arrangement of the genera of British Bees, which will be 
