178 REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLIII. 



lie found the Nomadse already hatched in the nests of the Eucera. This is 

 the commencement of more precise observations on the relations of Para- 

 sites. 



Dumas and Milne Edwards (Anns, de Sc. Nat. xx, p. 174) have instituted 

 researches on the preparation of wax by Bees, which contradict those of 

 Huber and Gundelach, inasmuch as that those observers imagined that they 

 had proved by their experiments that the wax was merely separated from 

 the vegetable nutriment in the body of the Bees, whilst on the contrary, the 

 above-named naturalists, by accurate and cautious experiments, have shown 

 that the wax is an animal secretion, for which the adipose substance affords 

 the material. 



The relative proportion of the sexes in the Meliponse has been elucidated 

 by Klug. (Bericht, ii. d. Verhandl. de Acad. de Wiss. z. Berlin, 1843, p. 

 219.) With regard to this subject he expresses himself decidedly, that 

 there is only a single female in each swarm, which differs in size, length of 

 abdomen, &c. from the males and workers, and would without doubt, have 

 been sent in greater numbers by the intelligent travellers, v. Olfers and 

 Sellow, had they met with more of them in the nests. Among a great num- 

 ber, however, of workers and numerous males, single females of only three 

 species have been collected by these travellers, viz. of the Manduri Bees 

 (AT. litiimta, new species), the Wora Bee (M, clacipes, Centr. clavipes, F.), 

 and of the Jetahi Bee (J/. augustula, Latr.) 



STREP SIPTERA. 



Siebold's important work on the Strepsiptera (in these 

 Archiv. i, Bd. p. 137, t. 7) has been already noticed in the 

 last year's Report. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



A new and important undertaking on the subject of the 

 European Lepidoptera is Herrich Schaffer's ' Systematische 

 Bearbeitung der Schmetterlinge von Europa,' or Systematic 

 arrangement of the Lepidoptera of Europe, as text, revision, 

 and supplement to J. Hiibner's collection of European 

 Lepidoptera, with plates by Geyer. The plates contain 

 species and varieties not as yet figured in Hiibner's work ; 



