HOLMESDALE NATOItAL HISTORY CLUB. ' ( 



" Flint Implements, and some Characteristios of the People that 

 used them." 



20i/t February, 187-1. — Mr. S. Webb read a paper, intended to be 

 supplemental to Professor Jones's lecture, upon the " Flint Imple- 

 ments of the District," showing that not only the flakes hitherto 

 recorded, but also most of the recognised forms of stone implements 

 described in Evans's great work had been found in this neighbour- 

 hood. 



\Qth Ajml, 1874. — Mr. S. Webb exhibited a specimen of Vanessa 

 Antiopa (the Camberwell Beauty), taken last season at River, near 

 Dover. The border was yellow, instead of the usually-noticed white 

 of British specimens. He stated that in 1872, when so many were 

 captured, the great bulk had white margins; whereas in 1873 seven 

 only were taken in all, no less than six of which had the yellow 

 border. 



Mr. J. Linnell exhibited a male of Melo'e hrevicoUis (the Oil- 

 beetle), taken at Redhill sand-pit. 



Sir Sidney Saunders exhibited two specimens of the primitive 

 hexapod larvae of Melo'e. The life history of this beetle is a curious 

 one and will bear repeating: — The female constructs a nest in the 

 sand at the foot of low-growing plants, in a suitable locality, and the 

 larvae, after being hatched, often remain together for a month without 

 moving; they then crawl up the stems, and by springing attach 

 themselves to wandering bees which visit the flower, and are by such 

 means conveyed to the bees' nest, where they first devour the eggs, 

 and, after a change of skin, become apod, or without feet ; they now 

 feed on the honey or honey-paste stored by the bees for their own 

 j)rogeny, and thus progress towards their final stage of development. 

 He also exhibited a curious Coleopterous insect, found at Corfu, 

 — Myodites siibdipterus, Fab., belonging to the family of the Bhijn- 

 phorida; several female Stylops, a wasp- and bee-parasite, recently 

 found at Shiere; and a specimen of Pediculus melUta of Kirbv, 

 found on Hampstead Heath, clinging to a a species of Andrcna : it 



