52 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited an extensive series of illustrations of wasp architecture, 

 which he had received from Mr. Stone, of Brightampton ; these had all been erected 

 in square wooden boxes with glazed fronts, some in an almost incredibly short space 

 of time ; six, five, or even three days having sufi&ced for the completion of some of 

 the most curious. The whole series had been constructed in the months of Septem- 

 ber and October, 1862, by a colony of Vespa Qermanica. 



Major Parry had sent for exhibition a Lucanoid insect, Odontolahis Stevensii, 

 with a singular monstrosity in both of the antennae ; the right antenna had the 

 last joint bifid, and the left antenna had the penultimate joint trifid. 



Professor Westwood exhibited some microscopically small specimens of an 

 Acarus, which had been found by Mr. Chapman, of Glasgow, in the unexpanded 

 buds of the black currant ; viewed with an ordinary lens, they only looked hke so 

 much dust, but under a good microscope they clearly appeared to be very minute 

 Acari ; but instead of having eight legs (the normal number), these had only four. 



Mr. Bates read a notice from Mr. Roland Trimen on the imitative habits of a 

 spider at the Cape of Good Hope. Mr. Trimen's attention had been first di-awE to 

 it on his approaching a composite plant with yellow flowers, a species of Senecio, 

 on which several specimens of a Satyrus were reposing ; two of these did not fly 

 away, but remained fixed to the plant, and on a closer examination he found that 

 each was firmly held in the grasp of a yellow spider. On releasing them from their 

 position the spider remained quiet for some moments, but soon recovering its 

 activity and courage, it fixed itself in the position in which it awaited its prey. 

 Holding the stem of the plant with its hind legs, it expanded its six anterior legs, 

 so that the body of the spider represented the disk of the flower, the six legs 

 simulating the ray-florets, and in this position it was hardly distinguishable from the 

 genuine flowers of the plant. 



Professor Westwood exhibited a new butterfly from Singapore, which he pro- 

 posed to describe under the name of Liphyra Brassolis. 



Mr. Stainton exhibited the angulated and naked pupa of Anchinia vemccella, 

 which is so analogous in its mode of attachment to the pupae of some of the Pierida^. 



Dr. Wallace exhibited some specimens of silk of the Bombyx Cynthia, the larva 

 of which feeds on the Ailanthus glandulosus ; one of the specimens exhibited had 

 been successfully reeled ofi" from the cocoon in a continuous thread, a process 

 which has previously appeared almost impracticable. 



Mr. Tegetmeier stated a circumstance in connection with bee-instincts, which he 

 thought might prove interesting to some of the members of the Society. Expecting 

 a hive to swarm in May last, he placed in the immediate vicinity of it an empty 

 hive, in which was some comb, thinking that probably when the swarm took place 

 the bees would quietly take possession of it ; and he found that the bees not only 

 set to work to clean out this hive, but that without any swarm having taken place, 

 new wax had been made in the empty hive, as though the intended tenants pur- 

 posed putting their future residence in complete repair beforehand. Mr. Teget- 

 meier remarked that the swarm had not yet taken place in consequence of the 

 supervening cold weather. 



Mr. F. Walker communicated a paper on undescribed Chlacidites. 



