IV
PREFACE.
selected the Hymenoptera as his chief study, because " in no department of the animal kingdom is the divine wisdom so eminently conspicuous," and it is well for us to-day that he did so. T h e county is consequently classic ground for students of the Aculeate Hymenoptera; and it is noteworthy that, although somewhat fully worked during recent years, fourteen species of the Bees stand in the list which have not since been taken here, while one, Halictus lœvis, Kirby, is still unique in his collection in the British Museum. The second advantage we possess is shared with Norfolk, which, I believe, approaches us most closely in point of numbers, with two hundred and thirty one recorded species. This is owing to the peculiar geologically-varied formation of the county. The older the superficial strata, the scantier becomes the vegetation ; but in Suffolk we have nothing cropping up earlier than the Cretaceous, without which we should lose many of our most beautiful plants, and consequently those Aculeates by which they are especially fertilized. Aculeates, and particularly the Fossors, most do congregate in sandy places, and great tracts are thus afforded for their delectation by the often superficial crag beds, which, in many places in the east of the county, give rise to such poor land that it has never been reclaimed from its original condition of heath, upon which may frequently be seen tumuli thrown up at the time of the Danish invasion. T h e extreme north-west is also lavish of uncultivated areas, and consists, for a great part, of plateaux of valley-gravel overlying the chalk, with a saline admixture, of which the origin appears to be at present somewhat doubtful. In contradistinction, the rich " heavy lands " of the central and southern districts afford excellent clay, with which those species that prefer it may build their nests, and indeed all the intermediate consistencies are to be found between these two extremes of soil. A goodly number of the, nidificating Hymenoptera are entirely, or for the most part, confined to our coasts, and the salinity of the pabulum appears to exercise peculiar attractions for them. T h u s our extensive seaboard, which, of course, varies considerably with the diverse formations through which it cuts, provides halcyon fields for their study and capture, as several summer migrants can testify. 1 Appended is a list of the principal works and notices in reference I Sandhills, such as those at Lowestoft, yield very excellent results, and, doubtless, those on the less frequented p a r t s of our shores still harbour species that do not figure in our (British) List.—Saunders, E . M . M . 1897, p. 140.