4 
[ J une, 
it seems to have fared better, as Dahlbom, # although he mentions four 
of Shuckard’s species, yet onlv describes one ( elongatulus ) in full, 
giving very short diagnoses of the others, two of which he says he has 
never seen ; 4V esmaelf only describes elongatulus , and says that he is 
disposed to consider all Shuckard’s seven species as yarieties of it. 
Thomson]; also only describes elongatulus, but says nothing whatever 
about its synonymy. Morawitz§ gives clone) at ulus with full synonymy, 
including all Shuckard’s seven species. 
There is, I think, little doubt that the view held by the continental 
authors is correct. I have the good fortune to possess Shuckard’s 
collection of this group, and an examination of it quite bears out 
their opinion. He only knew the $ of elongatulus, luteipalpis, proxi- 
mus, and transver sails, and only the $ of liyalinus and obliquus ; of 
propinquus he appears to have known both sexes, but the $ only re- 
mains in his collection. I have carefully examined all his specimens 
{transver sails he did not possess), and can find no specific difference 
between the three <§ or the three $ ; he himself suggests that lutei- 
palpis may be a var. of elongatulus , and that proximus differs from it 
only in coloui 4 , and he also states that he has taken obliquus in company 
with elongatulus, and yet it never seems to have occurred to him that 
they could be $ and ? of the same species ; his primary division of 
the black species is between those with the “ base of the metathorax 
smooth and shining,” and those with the “ base of the metathorax 
striated,” and it is this division which has led to all the confusion, as 
it throws the £ into one section and the $ into the other. That these 
£ and ? belong to each other I think there can be little or no doubt, 
as they occur together in the same localities, and agree in coloration, 
punctuation of the thorax, &c., and have been considered as sexes of 
one species by all the continental authors. Smith has adopted 
Shuckard’s divisions, and therefore comes to similar conclusions as to 
the sexes, but he gives a <$ to pallidip alp is and to obliquus, what these 
are, his descriptions do not show, as he only gives a few words to each ; 
but, taking everything into consideration, I think that we may with 
safety agree with the continental authors, and refer all our seven 
so-called species to one. The following table of our black-bodied 
species may be useful to some of your readers : 
(4) 1. Body petiolated, 1st segment terminating in a node. 
(3) 2. Face with a blunt spine between the antennae, apex of the tibiae red... 
tibialis. 
* Hymenoptera Europpea, vol. i, 1845. 
t Revue Critique des Hym£noptferes fouisseurs, Acad. Royale de Belgique, t. xviii. 
J Hymenoptera Scandinaviae, vol. iii- 
§ Crabronides de St. Petersbourg, Bull. Acad. imp. Sciences P^tersb., vol. vii. 
