1849.] Linnean Society. 29 



points requiring further investigation, the question whether the whole 

 of the pistillary cords are composed of filaments directly produced 

 by the pollen granules ; whether there is any relation between the 

 application of the pollen on the stigma and the development of the 

 germinal vesicles ; and whether the production of the confervoid 

 filaments is a normal process, which is open to doubt when only ob- 

 served in ovaries containing such an abundance of ovules as those 

 of Orchis Morio. 



Read also a notice of a species of Monodontomerus , parasitic in 

 the cells of Anthophora retusa, contained in a letter addressed to, and 

 communicated by, Adam "White, Esq., F.L.S. &c. 



Referring to the Monodontomerus described by Mr. Newport at 

 the last Meeting, of which an account will be found at page 25, 

 Mr. Smith remarks that it is identical with a species which he some 

 months ago showed to Mr. Adam White and Mr. Francis "Walker, 

 the latter of whom then informed him that it was a new species of 

 Monodontomerus. He adds, that Mr. "Walker, in whose hands he 

 placed specimens of both sexes for description, on learning a few 

 days afterwards that Mr. Newport had reared the same insect from 

 the nest of Anthophora, readily waived his right of description in 

 deference to Mr. Newport's wish to describe the insect himself. 



In the ' Zoologist' for March of the present year, Mr. Smith inci- 

 dentally mentioned that he had bred two distinct species of Mono- 

 dontomei-us from the cells of Osmia bicornis and those of Anthophora 

 retusa. Anxious, in the summer of 1848, to discover the lar^'se of 

 Melecta punctata, he procured from a colony of Anthophora at Charl- 

 ton in Kent a number of larvae and pupae ; but all the larvae, though 

 differing much in colour, produced Anthophorce only. While sepa- 

 rating the larvag from the pupae, he observed in a cell partially broken 

 open, containing a pupa of the bee, a small larva by its side slightly 

 moving ; and on removing the pupa, he found twelve more minute 

 larvae feeding upon it, which they continued to do for ten or twelve 

 days, by which time they were fully grown. When first observed, 

 the pupa of the bee was about one-third consumed, and at last not 

 a vestige of it remained ; all t'tiat the cell contained besides the larvae 

 being a small portion of yellow dust or small granules. They re- 

 mained in the larva state for several weeks, and then changed to 

 pupae, in which state they continued for about a fortnight, when 

 they became perfect and active insects. The species of Monodonto- 

 merus bred from the cells of Osmia also fed upon the pupa, and un- 

 derwent the same process of development. 



