ON ACULEATE HYMEN OPTEEA AND ICHNETJMONIDiE. 285 A Catalogue of the Aculeate Hymeiioptera and Ichueumouidfe of India and the Eastern Archipelago. By F. Smith, with In-troductory Eeraarks by A, E. Wallace, (Communicated by W. W. Saunders, Esq.) [Read December IG, 1869.] 1. Introduction. By A. R. AVallace. As almost all the insects in this catalogue which inhabit the Malayan archipelago were collected by me, 1 have been requested to make a few observations on them. In doing so I would wish to state that, though I collected all orders of insects, my time was too much occupied with those branches of natural history in which I was more especially interested, to pay much attention to the habits or economy of the Hymenoptera, All, therefore, I can hope to do, is to give a few superficial observations on their habits and distribution, and on the nature of the localities in which they most abound. As the present is the first of a series of works on the eastern Insects collected by me, it may be well to say a few words on the different places in which I made my collections. I reached Singapore at the end of April 1854, and spent six months between that island and the district of Malacca. In Singapore I chiefly collected at a spot about the centre of the island, where the low hills are crowned with patches of the lofty virgin forest that a few years before extended over the whole island. I also spent a week on tlie small island of Pulo-ubim, in the strait to the north of Singapore. The richness of these localities may be estimated from the fact that in nine weeks I collected about 700 species of Coleoptera, of which 130 were Longicornes. Other orders were equally abundant; but the novelty and beauty of the beetles and butterflies attracted my attention chiefly, and I only obtained about 70 species of Hymenoptera, though I have little doubt that an assiduous collector might have doubled that number. The peninsula of Malacca is equally rich ; but it is necessary to discover good localities in the neighbourhood of virgin forests. Some of the Malay villages near Mount Ophir would repay a collector for a long visit. The total number of Aculeate Hymenoptera collected by me at INFalacca and Singa-pore was 136 species. I next visited Borneo, and spent fifteen months in the territory of Sarawak. Erom October till Ecbruary was the wet season, LINN. JounN. — zooLoai, tol. XT. 21
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