British Bees: An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British IslesShuckard, William Edward
Science
British Bees: An Introduction into the Studies of the Natural History and Economy of the Bees Indigenous to the British Isles
Shuckard, William Edward
Bees; Hymenoptera -- Great Britain
His genus _Melitta_, which is equivalent to the subsequent subfamily
_Andrenidæ_, he divides into two sections, * and * *, the first
containing two families, _a_ and _b_, (these we call genera, and they
are now named _Colletes_ and _Prosopis_); the second section * *
contains three families, _a_, _b_, _c_, (_a_, is _Sphecodes_, _b_,
_Halictus_, and _c_ comprises our three genera, _Andrena_, _Cilissa_,
and _Dasypoda_.)
His genus _Apis_ he also divides into two sections, * and * *; the first
is subdivided into two families, _a_ and _b_ (our genera _Panurgus_ and
_Nomada_); and the second is divided into five subsections, _a_, _b_,
_c_, _d_, _e_; _a_ and _b_ constitute families (our genera _Melecta_ and
_Epeolus_). The subsection _c_ is divided into two parts, 1 and 2, the
first containing the two divisions _α_ and _β_, each comprising a family
(our genera _Cœlioxys_ and _Stelis_); and the second is divided into the
four families, _α_, _β_, _γ_, _δ_, (_α_ being the modern _Megachile_;
_β_, _Anthidium_; _γ_, _Chelostoma_ and _Heriades_ conjunctively, and
_δ_ is our _Osmia_). The subsection _d_ has two subdivisions, 1 and 2,
the first being a family (our _Eucera_); and the second is divided into
the two families _α_ and _β_ (_α_ comprising our _Saropoda_,
_Anthophora_, and _Ceratina_), and the family _β_, consisting of the
genus _Xylocopa_, then supposed to be indigenous, but whose native
occurrence has not been substantiated.
The fifth subsection, _e_, is split into two divisions, 1 and 2, each
containing a family (1 is our _Apis_, and 2, our _Bombus_).
In this last of his families Mr. Kirby had already noticed, with the
same sagacity with which he had previously conjectured the cuckoo-like
habits of some of the solitary bees, the distinctive structure of some
of the species, which incapacitated them from providing the sustenance
of their own young, and which thus reduced them to the same category;
but he left the idea in its supposititious condition, being too modest
to use it as a mark of separation, but which Newman, on our side of the
Channel, and St. Fargeau on the other side, subsequently, and both
nearly about the same time, but with the advantage in favour of Newman,
distinguished, and separated generically, respectively by the names of
_Apathus_ and _Psithyrus_; the former, having the priority, is adopted,
according to the rights of precedence in nomenclature.
The above description of Mr. Kirby’s system will perhaps be difficult to
understand, unless I append the naked scheme itself, which is as
follows:—
MELITTA.
[Table: Melitta Hierarchy]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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