Xll JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



October \st, 1838. 

 J. F. Stephens, Esq., President^ in the Chair. 



Donations. 



Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects, No. 6 

 By J. O, Westwood, the Author thereof. 



The Athenseura for September. By the Editor. 



The Magazine of Natural History. New Series, No. 22. By 

 the Editor. 



Mr. Tulk exhibited a specimen of the house fly, found on a leaf 

 near Dovor, completely invested with a fungus-like matter of a 

 white colour, the underside having the appearance of mould, and 

 the upper appearing to have an oily surface. 



The Rev. Mr. Taylor presented specimens of the different 

 sexes of a Fespa, inhabiting a large underground nest near trees, 

 togetlier with specimens of Ripiphorus paradoxus, $ and 2 , which 

 had made their escape from the small workers' cells ; he also ex- 

 hibited the pupa of this beetle. 



Mr. Waterhouse entered into some further details relative to his 

 views of the hexagonal form of the cells of the hive bee, which he 

 considered did not result from the pressure of cylinders against 

 each other ; on the contrary, he regarded the queen's cell as 

 proving that a cylinder was the normal form of the cells, the dia- 

 meter of which was greater than as they appeared under their 

 hexagonal form ; hence, as the bees commenced these cells close 

 together, the circumference of one cell would naturally intersect 

 the circumference of the adjacent cells, and hence, in order to 

 prevent the running of the cells into each other, the bees cut 

 away the wax, and left only a straight partition wall. He consi- 

 dered that this was proved by the many exceptions he had ob- 

 served to the hexagonal form of cells, some being pentagonal, 

 others quadrangular, and others circular on one side, not adjacent 

 to other cells, and angular on the opposite side. He had even 

 seen a comb which had been begun in a manner which prevented 

 the cells from receiving a hexagonal form, and the consequence 

 was that the irregularity was kept up throughout the comb. 



Mr. Sells however objected that the ordinary form of the 

 queen's cell was not cylindrical, but that of a Florence flask con- 

 siderably truncated. In the wasps, moreover, there are no cylin- 

 drical queens' cells to serve as models. 



