b PaOCEEDINQS OF THE 



store laid up by other Solitary Bees ; 4tli, The Scopulipedes, whose 

 posterior legs are in the females densely hirsute, and are employed 

 for the conveyance of pollen; and 5th, The Social races (Sociales) 

 consisting of the Humble and Hive Bees; the former comprising 

 also a closely allied group, resembling certain other species, but 

 having the posterior tibiae divested of pollen-plates and pollen- 

 brushes in the female, and unable therefore to lay up any store for 

 their young; this parasitic group lives in company with others, and 

 is distinguished from the true Bombi by the name of Apathus. 

 Several structural peculiarities in other tribes were also pointed out, 

 more especially the remarkable anterior tarsi of Megachile maritima, 

 a British species, and the appendages to the middle pair of legs in 

 the males of Anthophora. He also exhibited specimens of the 

 briar-cells of Osmia tridentata, and explained the habits of the 

 numerous parasites which attack this bee in its several stages, com- 

 prising 13 recorded species; of these, four feed upon the egg and 

 pollen-paste, five attack the soft larvae externally, two attack the 

 solid adult larvae internally, hibernating in their desiccated tegument, 

 one attacks the soft pupa externally, and finally a species of fly 

 named Conops deposits its egg in the body of the imago itself. 

 Specimens were also exhibited of various nests of Xylocopa or 

 Carpenter Bees in cane, briar, &c. 



Mr. J. Linnell, jr. also exhibited a series of specimens collected 

 in the Reigate district, amongst which were some clearly illustrating 

 the distinctions alluded to by the President between the pollen- 

 bearing Bombi and the parasitic Apathi, females of the former being 

 furnished with a ridge of stiff hairs on the hind legs, and the latter 

 being devoid of this. 



EvENiKG Meeting, Feb. Wth, 1876. Mr. Sydney Webb read 

 a paper on the "Tent-making and Case-bearing Caterpillars." He 

 said it was impossible, owing to their being spread over several 

 groups, families, and genera, to class them strictly according to this 

 peculiarity of their early life, but they might be conveniently divided 

 into four groups; Firstly, those which without spinning an entire 

 silken covering, contrive to disguise themselves beneath a garb of 

 herbage which moves with them; Secondly, the silken web spinners, 

 whose constructed habitations are ornamented or hidden from view 

 by superadded materials; Thirdly, the constructors of simple 

 cases .made entirely from the food-plant; and Fourthly, those 

 whose cases of silken character are unusually complicated, or ela- 

 borated from the plants themselves. He then gave accounts of the 

 life-histories of Geometra smaragdaria, Aventia, and Cleora, also of 

 the Psychidae and their allies, referring to the peculiar retrogression 



