_Brazils._ Prosopis; Halictus; Ceratina; Epeolus; Stelis; Cœlioxys; Megachile; Anthidium; Apathus; Bombus. _Paraguay._ Anthophora. _Monte Video._ Bombus. In Polynesia there occur— _Sandwich Islands._ Prosopis. _Philippines._ Anthophora; Nomada; Megachile. In Australia are found— _Swan River._ Prosopis; Megachile. _Adelaide._ Prosopis; Megachile. _Port Phillip._ Prosopis. _Tasmania._ Prosopis; Megachile. _Sydney._ Sphecodes; Halictus. _New Zealand._ Halictus. _Australia_ [but no distinct locality]. Anthophora; Saropoda. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV NOTICE OF THE MORE CONSPICUOUS FOREIGN GENERA OF BEES. 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 in her floral beauties in the most luxuriant climates, find rivalry as well in the multitude as in the magnificence of the insects which she has allied with them as the indispensable promoters of their perpetuation. How otherwise than through some of the insects we shall mention could tropical _Labiatæ_ and the tubulated flowers of the _Rubiaceæ_, etc. be fertilized? The reader will therefore, I trust, welcome an acquaintance with some of the most conspicuous of the group of bees produced by tropical countries, although the main object of this treatise is to exhibit the attractions of “our native bees.” I will but superficially and rapidly glance at the more distinguished exotic genera and species, as supplementary to the preceding notice of the geographical range of those which are indigenous with us. How our own species reached us is a subject which has at present eluded all satisfactory determination. For its solution we must await the further discoveries of geology; at present we can only attribute their advent here to the same causes which are common to the production of all our groups of both the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. Knowing how affluent tropical and sub-tropical countries are in the variety, size, and number of the forms, as well as in the splendour of their plants and vertebrated animals, we may fairly expect as gorgeous a richness in the insects they produce. Nor shall we be disappointed, for the imperial magnificence of their _Lepidoptera_ and _Coleoptera_ guarantees an equivalent brilliancy in the other orders of insects, and which is fully confirmed by the harmonious splendour of their bees.