A few words are necessary explanatory of the course pursued in the following work, as regards the citation of authorities. All the facts recorded without reference to authorities, are the result either of personal observation or of diligent study, which, from the length of time that has intervened, have become so blended in my mind that I can no longer separate their sources. I may, however, state that observation has, certainly, as often anticipated the perusal of the discoveries of others, as

Plate I. Plate II. Plate III. Plate IV. Plate V. Plate VI. Plate VII. Plate VIII. Plate IX. Plate X. Plate XI. Plate XII. Plate XIII. Plate XIV. Plate XV. Plate XVI. Plate II. Plate III. Plate IV. Plate V. Plate VI. Plate VII. Plate VIII. Plate IX. Plate X. Plate XI. Plate XII. Plate XIII. Plate XIV. Plate XV. Plate XVI....

It is very natural that the “Bee” should interest the majority of us, so many agreeable and attractive associations being connected with the name. It is immediately suggestive of spring, sunshine, and flowers,—meadows gaily enamelled, green lanes, thymy downs, and fragrant heaths. It speaks of industry, forethought, and competence,—of well-ordered government, and of due but not degrading subordination. The economy of the hive has been compared by our great poet to the polity of a populous kingdo

Although the preceding pages have been written upon the assumption that the reader knows what a bee is, now that we are gradually approaching the more special and technical portion of the subject it will be desirable to conform a little to the ordinary usages of scientific treatment. The bees constitute a family of the order Hymenoptera , viz. insects ordinarily, but in the case of bees always, with four transparent wings, which are variously but partially traversed longitudinally and transverse

In giving a broad sketch of the geography of the genera of bees which are native to our islands, but whose local distribution I shall reserve for notice in the account of the genera themselves, I must regret at the outset the lack of materials for its satisfactory treatment. There are but very few exceptions to the dearth of assiduity in this direction; a very favourable one is that of the son of the late venerable hymenopterologist, the Count le Pelletier de St. Fargeau, who, at his military po

Seeing thus the wide and almost universal distribution of many of our own genera, we might be induced to ask whether this could not suffice, by the impetus which more genial climates give to the multiplication of individuals, to meet all the exigencies of the most favoured regions of the vegetable kingdom. This is not so. There seems scarcely a limit to the exuberance wherein nature revels in the production of variations of form. The splendour, elegance, and infinite variety which she displays i

Nature seems to have imposed a restraint upon the undue increase of all its creatures, by creating, to check it, others that prey upon them. It thus enlarges the sphere of its activity by making life accessory to life, and promoting thereby a more extended enjoyment of all its pleasures. Other forms are brought into existence, and other terms given to duration than those which the laws of life attach to specific organization. No abatement is thereby made upon the quantity of contemporaneous vita

The following rapid observations are addressed to those whom it is the desire that this series of volumes may induce to take up the study of Nature in a methodical manner. With this view, the merest summary of the principles upon which scientific arrangement is based, is here exhibited. The study requires method as a lodestar to guide through its intricacies, but it is one which, pursued simply as a recreation, yields both much amusement and gratifying instruction. It shows us that when we uncla

With the great John Ray dawns the scientific cultivation of British bees. Before his time, the only entomological work which had been published in England was Dr. Mouffett’s ‘Theatrum Insectorum.’ In this work there is an ample account of the domestic bee, with gleanings from many sources of some of its habits and economy, but there is no notice of any insects, excepting some species of the genus Bombus , which may be at all consorted with the social bee by affinities of structure or identity of

If perfection of instinct, and an organization exquisitely moulded to a complete adaptation to the many delicate and varied functions of that instinct, as well as to the exercise of every faculty incidental to the class, be certainly a proof of pre-eminence, we may justly claim this position for the Order Hymenoptera. There is no characteristic in which they are deficient, nor any in which some of the members of the Order do not transcend in aptitude the insects of all the others. If they have n

The following table is constructed exclusively to facilitate, by the most obvious characters, the recognition of the several genera into which the family is divided; it will, however, be incumbent upon the learner to use some diligence in order to acquire an accurate perception of their distinguishing characteristics. By the present extremely artificial plan the systematic sequence is disturbed; but the numbers, which will be found appended to the names in the table, will show their orderly succ

I now proceed to the treatment and description of the genera severally, and the enumeration of the species in due scientific consecutive order. The generic names adopted are those of the first describers of the genera; but the generic characters given by them could not be employed, they having been usually framed to suit special purposes. All the generic characters introduced into this work are therefore quite original, and have been made from a very careful autoptical examination of the insects