Excerpt from Descriptions of New Species of Hymenoptera in the Collection of the British Museum The late Mr. Frederick Smith was engaged, at the time of his death, in the determination and arrangement of the large collection of foreign Hymenoptera in the British Museum. During the pro gress of this work he drew up descriptions of those species which he recognized as new, with the view of finally submitting the whole of his manuscript to the Trustees for publication. He was not permitted to complete this task: after a short illness, Frederick Smith died on February 16th, 187 9. It seemed to the Trustees to be in the interest of the collection in the British Museum, as well as of science generally, that such descriptions as were left by Mr. Smith should be published as soon as possible. Although they were prepared with great care, and were apparently ready for the printer, the author, probably, would have introduced some emendations if he had lived to see his work through the press. Under the circumstances mentioned, the only alterations admitted by the Editor were those of some specific names which were found to be preoccupied for species of the same genus. The original manuscript will be preserved in the archives of the Department. Mr. Smith had also written preliminary diagnoses of a number of central-american species presented to the Trustees by Messrs. Godman and Salvin. These diagnoses, originally destined for the great work on the Fauna of Central America which those gentle men are preparing for publication, have been introduced into the present work with their permission. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.