I 



Bees. 41 



Saturday, Maij 9l/i, 1868. 



The Society held their Forty-third Meeting at the President's 

 House. 



The following were the exhibitions : — 



A round Flint (split) with a hollow interior, probably at one time filled 

 with sponge ; a piece of Rock, full of Fossils, from Bognor. 



By the President. 

 An -^sthesiometer. . .. .. ..By Mb. Griffith. 



Bashford then read a Paper on 



BEES. 



He gave a description of the common hive-bee, explaining its 

 anatomy and economy; from which we extract the following curious 

 account of their reproductive powers. 



" The drone whom the queen chooses for her spouse, never sur- 

 vives the bridal day, but as this does not affect her fidelit}', she 

 never chooses another. Although her ovaries or egg organs are 

 so small, yet, according to Huber, she generally produces from 

 them about 12,000 eggs in the short interval of two months, being 

 at the average rate of nearly two hundred per diem. 



" The queen does not continue to be so prolific for the remainder 

 of her life, but she gives birth to an enormous progeny. The 

 number of eggs deposited by her in the cells in the months of 

 April and May is, as I have just said, about 12,000 ; an author says 

 that a prolific queen in a season (that is from April to October 

 inclusive) will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs. 



" This amazing power of reproduction is not exerted uniformly 

 during the season. There are two fits of fruitfulness. The first 

 in April and May, the second in August and September."' 



Other varieties of bee were described. The following account 

 of the curious insect Megachile jiapaveris was given. 



"This little bee always chooses the most brilliant scarlet for the 

 hangings of its apartment; she selects the petals of the wild poppy 

 for its material, which she dexterously cuts into the proper shape. 

 She first excavates a burrow in some pathway, cylindrical at the 

 entrance, but swelled out below to the depth of about three inches ; 

 having polished the walls, she flies to a neighbouring field, cuts 

 out oval portions of the flowers of poppies, seizes them between 



