Entomological Society. 69 



Ap. bicolor, S. Head red-brown ; antenna black; thorax smooth, 



shining, deep reddish-brown, with a transverse furrow. Scutellum 



and elytra black shining green, deeply and coarsely punctured in 



regular strice, each elytron with a deflexed lateral humeral lobe ; 



legs reddish-brown, with the tips of the femora and tibia, and the 



tarsi black. Length £ inch. — Hab. New South Wales. Mus. 



Hope. 



Ap. apicalis, S. Head red-brown ; antenna rather shorter and more 



slender than in the preceding. Thorax red-brown, as broad as 



the elytra, with a wide transverse furrow. Scutellum and elytra 



red-brown, the latter deeply and coarsely punctured in regular 



stria, with the apex black ; each elytron with a deflexed lateral 



humeral lobe. Legs red-brown, with the tips of the femora and 



tibia, and the tarsi black. Length \ inch. — Hab. New South 



Wales. Mus. Hope. 



Some account of the natural history of a fossorial hymenopterous 



insect from Port Lincoln, South Australia. By J. O. Westwood, 



F.L.S. 



The insect in question is a new species belonging to the Pompi- 

 lida, and apparently to that division of Pompilus allied to Aporus in 

 the large size of the collar. 



P. audax, W. P. ater, pubescens, prothorace magno, quadrato, 

 antennis albis, tibiis tarsisque fusco-albidis. Long. corp. lin. 5^. 

 Specimens of this insect in the pupa state (almost fully developed) 

 were found in the cells, each of which was about an inch long and 

 half an inch in diameter : several of these cells were attached to- 

 gether, and seemed formed of a succession of short transverse layers 

 of a shining material which had dried into rounded or elongated 

 nodules. It appeared evident that these nests had not been enclosed 

 in a burrow, but were external, the materials having been brought 

 from a distance ; thus differing from the habits of the majority of the 

 family. In one of the cells, the remains of a very large spider, which 

 had evidently served as the food of the enclosed larva, were found. 



Mr. Newport communicated extracts from various letters which 

 he had received from Mr. Wheekes, of Sandwich, detailing a series 

 of galvanic experiments whereby he had obtained specimens of Aca- 

 rus hystrix (or A. Crossii) from mineral solutions acted upon by vol- 

 taic currents, in the same manner as Mr. Crosse had obtained the same 

 insect. In this case distilled water had been used, the mineral had 

 been previously submitted to a white heat, and the apparatus had 

 been insulated by being placed in mercury ; notwithstanding which 

 a number of the Acari had been produced. Mr. J. E. Gray stated 

 that Mr. Children had also instituted a series of experiments at the 

 British Museum precisely similar to those of Mr. Crosse, without 

 obtaining a single Acarus. 



February 7th. — W. W. Saunders, Esq., in the Chair. 

 Mr. Westwood exhibited two extremely rare British Noctuida 

 from the collection of Mr. T. Reeves, Jun., of Carlisle ; namely, 

 Agrotis cinerea, a beautiful variety, with the ground colour of the 



