THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 71 



coraposed of the cottony flowers of the "spear" — was a 

 single cup-shaped waxen cell, nearly half an inch in diameter. 

 The humble bee, after making its escape from the soft mass 

 of material I held in my hand, circled round my head a few 

 times in the air, and then went directly to the spot in the 

 grass where I had taken the "nest" from, at the same time 

 buzzing loudly, and being apparently in great agitation as it 

 settled, and ran about amongst the blades of grass. Having 

 no net with me I could not capture it. I have before seen 

 similar occurrences to both 1 have here briefly described, so 

 that the facts are as "old as the hills;" but may I ask what 

 is the name of the respective builders, and did the humble 

 bee construct the nest itself? — G. B. Corhin. 



[The larger nest, the wasp's, was probably that of Vespa 

 britannica; the smaller one, a bee's, that of Bombus 

 Syl varum. — Edward Newmaji.] 



Note on Megasliymus. — As I believe I have lately 

 made two mistakes in stating that Megastigmus giganteus 

 occurs in England, 1 wish to take the first opportunity 

 of rectifying them. The first error is in the name, M. gigan- 

 teus, Kollar : it appears to be a synonym of Cleptes stigma, 

 Fahr. (Ichneumon stigma, Fabr., olim.). The second error 

 is in the supposition that this species is a parasite of Cynips 

 Kollari : it is a parasite of C. argentea, and differs slightly, 

 though probably specifically, from the Megastigmus of 

 C. Caput-Medusa3, and still more from that of C. Kollari. 

 This last Megastigmus has followed its prey into England, 

 and there are some other undetermined British species of the 

 green-back group of Megastigmus. — Francis Walker. 



Entomological Pins. — I should be obliged to any readers 

 of the 'Entomologist' who would kindly inform me where I 

 can obtain pins measuring two-thirds of an inch in length, 

 and of the stoutness of No. 10. 1 have met with several pins 

 of the size, but have failed to find out whence they were 

 obtained. — J. E. Fletcher ; Fitmaston Road, Worcester. 



Proceedings of the South London Entomological Society, 

 January '2dUt and February liih, 1874. 



Donations announced. 



Sir John Lubbock's work on the ' Collembola and Thy- 

 sauura;' from the author. 



