62 



Mr. Lubbock said tliat M. Fabre bad recently published, in the ' Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles,' an interesting: account of the habits and metamorphoses of Sitaris. 

 After much trouble he convinced himself that the active little hexapod larva, after fixing 

 itself to the body of the bee, patiently awaits the deposition of an epf<j, at which moment 

 it quits the bee and attaches itself to the fresh-laid eg:(r. After devouring the yolk it 

 swims about for awhile in the empty egg-shell, and then, after undergoing the first 

 metamorphosis, commences to eat up the honey. M. Fabre is so excellent an observer, 

 and his paper is evidently written with so much care, that this statement is pro- 

 bably correct, in which case Mr. Stone must be wrong in supposing that the Sitaris 

 larva feeds on the body of the bee larva. Mr. Stone will be doing good service 

 to Entomology if he is able, in a future season, to coufiini the interesting observa- 

 tions made by M. Fabre. 



Mr. Westwood stated that he had himself made nearly the same observations as 

 Mr. Stone, on the habits of the perfect Sitaris, many years ago, in a village, in Oxford- 

 shire, when he had found it usually abundant, and had succeeded in rearing thelarvaB 

 from the eggs laid by the females. He had since been favoured, by Madame Audouin, 

 with permission to make copies of the extensive series of observations made on the 

 habits and transformations of the sanie species, by the late lamented Prof. Audouin, 

 which he promised to lay before the Society at a future opportunity. 



Part 3 of the current volume of the Society's ' Transactions ' was on the 

 table. 



November 7, 1859. 

 Dr. Gray, President, in the chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be presented to 

 the donors : — ' Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool,' 

 No. 13; presented by the Society. 'Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Natu- 

 ralistes de Moscou,' 1858, Nos. 2, 3 and 4 ; 1859, No. 1 ; by the Society. ' Farm 

 Insects,' Part 6 ; by the Author, John Curtis, Esq., F.L.S. 'The Zoologist' for 

 November ; by the Editor. ' List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the 

 Collection of the British Museum,' Part 18 — Pyralides ; by the Author, Francis Walker. 

 Esq., F.L.S. ' The Journal of the Society of Arts ' for October ; by the Society. ' The 

 Athenaeum ' for September ; by the Editor. ' The Literary Gazette ' for October; by 

 the Editor. ' Catalogus Hemipterorum, Herausgegeben von dem Entomologischen 

 Verein zu Stettin ; ' ' Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,' Nos. 7 — 9 ; by the Ento- 

 mological Society of Stettin. ' The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,' Vol. vi. 

 and NOS..158— 162 ; by H. T. Stainton, Esq. 



