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CHAPTER III.

SKETCH OE THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE GENERA OFBRITISH BEES.

In giving a broad sketch of the geography of thegenera of bees which are native to our islands, butwhose local distribution I shall reserve for notice in theaccount of the genera themselves, I must regret at theoutset the lack of materials for its satisfactory treat-ment.

There are but very few exceptions to the dearth ofassiduity in this direction ; a very favourable one is thatof the son of the late venerable hymenopterologist, theCountie Pelletier de St. Fargeau,who, at his military postas an officer of the French army in Algeria , stationed atOran , collected energetically for his father in that district,and where, in one of his collecting excursions, he wasseverely wounded by a musket-ball. Another equallyfavourable exception is that of Sydney Smith Saunders,Esq., residing at Prevesa , in Albania , who has stre-nuously and perseveringly collected in that country.Here and there we can point to something having beendone in Upper India, in the vicinity of Poonah , at Pon­ dicherry , in Java , in some limited localities of China , andto some extent in Australia , Tasmania , and New Zealand ,