Zoological Society, 383 



October 28. — Living specimens were exhibited of a species of Bee 

 from South America, together with portions of its Comb, contained in 

 the fissure of a log of wood. They were presented to the Society by 

 Mr. Bigg, who stated, in a note accompanying the specimens, that 

 they were found about three weeks since on spUtting a log of peach- 

 wood from the Brazils for the use of a dye-house, on the premises of 

 Mr. Applegath, a calico-printer at Crayford in Kent. The wood 

 had been previously lying in the docks, and had been perhaps eighteen 

 months from the Brazils. 



Mr. Curtis, to whom specimens were submitted for examination, 

 states that they belong to the genus Trigona, Jur., and form a very 

 pretty and apparently undescribed species. 



Mr. Yarrell exhibited preparations of both sexes of Syngnathus 

 Acus, Linn., and Syngn. Typhle, Ej., in illustration of the following 

 extract from the manuscript notes of the late John Walcott, Esq., 

 author of ' A Synopsis of British Birds,' * History of Bath Fossils/ ' 

 and * Flora Britannica Indigena.' This manuscript, which is volu- 

 minous, and relates wholly to British Fishes, was written during the 

 author's residence at Teignmouth, in the years 1784 and 1785, and 

 has been forwarded by his son William Walcott, Esq., of South- 

 ampton, to Mr. Yarrell, for his use in a projected work on * British 

 Fishes.' 



•' Syngnathus Acus and Typhle. — The male differs from the female 

 in the belly from the vent to the tail fin being much broader, and in 

 having for about two thirds of its length two soft flaps, which fold 

 together and form a false belly. They breed in the summer, the fe- 

 males casting their roe into the false belly of the male. This I have 

 asserted from having examined many, and having constantly found, 

 early in the summer, roe in those without a false belly, but never any 

 in those with ; and on opening them later in the summer there has 

 been no roe in (what I have termed) the female, but only in the false 

 belly of the male." 



The specimens exhibited of females of Syngn. Acus and Typhle had 

 no anal pouch, and the opened abdomen exposed two lobes of ova 

 of large size in each. The anal pouch is peculiar to the males, and 

 is closed by two elongated flaps. On separating these flaps and ex- 

 posing the inside, the ova, large and yellow, were seen lining the 

 pouch in some specimens, while in others the hemispheric depres- 

 sions from which the ova had been but lately removed were very 

 obvious. In each of these the opened abdomen exhibited true testes. 



Mr. Walcott adds : " They begin to breed when only between 4 

 and 5 inches long." A specimen oi Syngn. Acus, nearly 1 6 inches long, 

 was exhibited, indicating, probably, its extreme growth. A female 

 of the same species, only 4 inches long, was also shown, the abdo- 

 men of which contained two lobes of enlarged ova, which, to all ap- 

 pearance, would have been deposited in a few days. 



Specimens of males and females oi Syngn. Ophidion,liiim.,v/eTe also 

 exhibited. In this species neither male nor female possesses an anal 

 pouch, but the ova are carried by the male in hemispheric depres- 

 sions on the external surface of the abdomen, anterior to the anus. 



