324 Mr. F. Smith’s Notes on 
a cylindrical form, are pressed into somewhat irregular hexagons, 
a section of them exhibiting a close imitation of the comb of a 
wasp or honey-bee. The announcement by Mr. Curtis of a 
species of saw-fly thus constructing one common dwelling-place 
naturally produced considerable discussion. A fact so novel 
elicited even indications of doubt whether there had not been 
some mistaken observation on Mr. Curtis’s part. Such, however, 
was certainly not the case. The insect is perfectly well known to 
Mr. Peckolt of Catagallo, who calls it “ Marumbouda Seda,” the 
silk Marumbouda, in allusion to the silken nest spun by the 
larvee. 
The second insect placed by Mr. Peckolt in the division of 
wasps proved to be the Bombus violaceus, a common species in 
Brazil, and known in the vernacular as ‘* Marumbouda Man- 
gunga.” 
The third in the list of Vespide is correctly assigned to that 
family, being the Polybia pygmea of Saussure. This species 
constructs a beautiful globular nest, the size of a rather large 
orange. The combs are of the most exquisite construction, and 
it is by no means an uncommon circumstance to find the outer 
envelope of the nest ornamented with patches of delicate hexa- 
gonal tracery. 
The first species of honey-bee that I propose to notice belongs 
to the stingless group; it is the Trigona Mosquito, named in the 
list “ Abelha Mosquito,” the Mosquito bee. It is satisfactory to 
find that this insect is identical with that forwarded from Brazil 
to the International Exhibition of 1862, under the same ver- 
nacular name, and described by myself in a paper published m 
the Transactions of this Society, descriptive of the series of honey- 
bees and wasps then exhibited (Trans. Ent. Soc., 3rd series, 1. 
510). Some hundreds of specimens, together with the combs, 
have been sent by Mr. Peckolt in two vials. Fortunately I dis- 
covered both workers and females among them, and of the latter 
half a dozen specimens. I had no difficulty in discovering the 
queen, she being even more conspicuous than the queen of the 
common hive-bee (Apis mellifica). Trigona Mosquito is the 
smallest species of the genus that 1 have seen, the worker not 
being more than two lines long. ‘The queen, when her abdomen 
is distended with ova, is more than double that length. Her head 
and thorax are about the same size as in the ordinary worker. 
The abdomen is therefore enormously swollen and elongated, 
giving her, in fact, very much the appearance of a gravid female 
