( lii ) 



or entrance at the end nearest the leaf petiole. The ants, 

 which were sent in spirit, appear to be a species of Polyrhachis. 

 Mr. Frisby also exhibited three cells of Zethus cyanopterus, 

 a wasp of the family Eumenidae, also sent by Mrs. M. E. 

 Walsh, F.E.S.. from Soekaboemi, Java, and read the following 

 note : — 



Mr. H. 0. Forbes, in " A Naturalist's Wanderings in the 

 Eastern Archipelago," figures a nest of this species, with 

 apparently a number of openings, which he says was com- 

 posed of a number of chips of leaves glued together, the 

 whole nest being protected from rain by a projecting roof of 

 the same material, this roof itself being shaped like a leaf. 

 In the specimens I have here the cells are simple. The 

 question arises as to whether these cells would have been 

 added to at a later period, or whether this wasp sometimes 

 makes a communal nest and at other times only solitary cells. 

 Longevity of a Coleopterous Larva. — The President 

 exhibited a coleopterous larva, together with the box in and 

 on which it had been living for some years. He said that it 

 was the larva of a longicorn beetle, but was unable to state 

 the species, and observed that similar instances of longevity 

 were on record. He read the following letter which he had 

 received with the exhibit : — 



" Dear Sir, 



'■ I venture to send you a wooden pencil-box, which 

 has been badly ravaged by the larva of some boring insect, 

 as it may perhaps be of some unusual interest. The box has 

 been in my possession for many years — probably over twenty- 

 five, possibly still longer. The insect first made itself known 

 ■ — at least six or eight years ago, possibly more- — by a loud 

 ticking sound ; so loud that it has often woke me at night, 

 if I omitted to place the box in a cupboard or drawer. The 

 sound was a clicking sound, like that of a cricket in the wall. 

 I am unable to say in what country it first made itself mani- 

 fest. The box has travelled with me widely — in India (in- 

 eluding the Himalayas); in the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia 

 and the Turco-Persian frontier: around the shores of the 

 Red Sea: in Egypt, Palestine and Syria; in Arabia (down 



