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. Brullé 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 Rossi, 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 are Germany, Sweden, a part of Russia, and even Finland. It is impossible for any entomologist to examine every locality for himself, he must, in great measure, depend on the labours of others; and, of course, I can only speak of the collections which are accessible to me, or which are described in monographs, or have been named in lists that have been published. Doubtless the Museum of Berlin, so long under the administration of a lover of the Order, Dr. Klug, would present a large contribution to our knowledge of the distribution of the forms, did a list of its riches exist. Such a list of the _menoptera_ of Portugal, contained in Count Hoffmansegg’s collection, was published many years ago in Illiger’s ‘Magazin der Insectenkunde.’ It has been a fatality incidental to this entomological branch of the study of natural history that some of its most energetic cultivators have been taken early away. There was formerly Illiger, then our own Leach, and then Erichsen. Leach, but for his afflicting malady, would have done much for the science; still, let us hope that the _Hymenoptera_, and especially the bees, are gaining ground in the estimation of entomologists generally, and that not many years will pass before collectors will possess them in abundance. For the present, I can but give a slight summary of the knowledge we possess on this subject. Thus science has sustained great loss by reason of the unfortunate neglect which the family of bees, and, indeed, the Order of _Hymenoptera_ generally, has met with from collectors in distant localities whose tastes have led so directly to the collection of other more favoured Orders, and the opportunities for repairing the consequences of such neglect being in some cases extremely rare. The present slight attempt to trace the geography and cosmopolitan range of our native genera of bees will necessarily be affected to some considerable extent by this neglect.