XC 
it? The insects have come to me through the Foreign Office and the Manchester 
Chamber of Commerce.” Mr. Stainton observed that the moth had hitherto been 
considered a great rarity, and he had been able to identify it as the Earias siliquana of 
Herrich-Schaffer by the aid of two specimens lately brought from Egypt by Mr. 
Pickard-Cambridge; Dr. Staudinger, when compiling his Catalogue of European 
Lepidoptera, did not possess a specimen. The insect was closely allied to the Earias 
chlorana of this country, which feeds in the terminal shoots of osiers. 
Mr. Bond exhibited a small moth, belonging to the Tortrices, captured during the 
preceding week, in Darenth Wood, by Mr. E. G. Meek, and which he believed to be 
new to the British list. 
Mr. Bond also exhibited a variety of Adela DeGeerella (male), captured at 
Charlton in 1866, and having the wings entirely suffused with bright golden. 
Mr. F. Smith exhibited an old razor-case in one of the compartments of which was 
a nest of Odynerus quadratus: the case had been allowed to lie on a shelf near an 
open window, and entry was effected through a hole in the bottom. In August, 1866, 
it was sent to Mr. Smith, with a request that he would name the occupant; but he 
was then unable to determine the species, as several wasps of the genus Odynerus were 
known to construct similar nests in crevices of old walls, holes in posts, and frequently 
in banks; and various instances of the construction of their nests in odd situations 
were on record. Thus Prof. Westwood had mentioned an instance of O. quadratus 
building its nest in the folds of a piece of paper; Mr. Curtis had discovered a nest of 
O. parietum on the top of a book ; and a friend of Mr. Smith’s had once brought him an 
octave flute, which had been left in an arbour during a few days’ absence, and in the 
bore of which O. quadratus had built its mud-cells. The cells constructed in the razor- 
case produced ten males and four females; the cells were placed in various positions, 
necessitated probably by the furm of the case and the confined space; the four female 
cells and six of the male cells were placed transversely, the rest were in a longitudinal 
direction ; one cell was empty, and was placed obliquely to the sides of the case. The 
development of the insects was as follows: on the 20ih of March, 1867, they were 
still in the larva state; by the 10th of May they had changed to pupe; on the 22nd 
of May six males came forth; on the 25th three males; on the 30ih one male; on 
the Ist of June three females appeared; and on the 3rd another female. Not a 
single parasite was obtained. Mr. Smith added that he had bred most of the species 
of Odynerus, and had found that the number of males always exceeded the number of 
females, in the proportion of three to one, or thereabouts. 
Prof. Westwood was able to add another instance to the list of curious localities for 
wasps’ and bees’ nests. Mr. Higgins had a Peruvian drinking-vessel in the form of 
some uncouth imaginary quadruped, the mouthpiece being in the back of the animal, 
and in this cup, at the extremity of one of the creature’s legs, a bee had built its 
nest. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan remarked that he had recently seen the male (S. linearis, lug) of 
the sawfly, Strongylogaster cingulatus, in some numbers near Croydon; although the 
female was geuerally very abundant, the male was very rarely seen. He alluded also 
to the apparent total absence of males of many species of Tenthredinide, as, e.g., in 
Selandria stramineipes, the females of which were universally abundant, in company 
with the Strongylogaster, on the young fern in spring. It would almost seem as if 
these were cases of parthenogenesis. 
