62 
BRITISH BEES. 
but nothing of any magnitude. There is much hope that 
a great deal has been done in Ceylon by Mr. Thwaites, 
who, when resident at Bristol, was a most ardent and 
successful hymenopterologist. 
The Egyptian Hymenoptera have been extensively and 
admirably figured by Savigny, in the Imperial superb 
work published under the auspices of Napoleon I., but 
to these, unfortunately, no descriptive text was pub¬ 
lished, and they are therefore as useless to science as if 
they had not been figured. But those collected by 
Ehrenberg, and figured by Klug, in the ‘ Symbolse 
Physicae/ exhibit how rich in variety is that remarkable 
region. These figures may be called the ne plus ultra 
of entomological artistic skill. 
Unfortunately, this Order has been sadly neglected for 
the sake of the less troublesome Coleoptera, and the more 
conspicuous Lepidoptera. This is plainly perceptible 
from the paucity of species recorded as having been once 
in the Count Dejean’s collection, where we might have 
expected to have obtained a rich view of the Hymenoptera 
of Spain; as also in those of other French collectors, 
who have had rare but neglected opportunities for the 
purpose. It is true M. Brulle has done a good deal in 
Greece. We are, as yet, in comparative ignorance, from 
the same cause of neglect, of the Hymenoptera of Italy, 
excepting something that has been done by the Marquis 
Spinola, in Liguria, and by Eossi, in Tuscany. A little 
has been contributed towards that of Carniola, but we 
are almost ignorant of the Hymenoptera of Sicily, which, 
from various causes, are likely to be very peculiar. Mr. 
Swainson’s collection of them, although not numerous, 
were neglected until they became unintelligible. The 
only European countries that have been tolerably gleaned 
