Exhibitions, &c. 
Mr. J. Jenner Weir exhibited some microscopic preparations of the spiral tongues 
of butterflies, for the purpose of showing the diversity of striation of the spiral tongue 
in different species, and of certain papille existing at the end of that member; the 
papilla in Vanessa C-album were very different from those of the closely-allied species 
of Vanessa, whilst in the genus Argynnis they were found to be extremely brittle. 
Mr. Bond exhibited a coloured drawing, by Mr. Buckler, of the larva of Acronycta 
strigosa, feeding on hawthorn; and a photograph of a remarkable negro variety of 
Abraxas Grossulariata. 
The Rev. H. Clark exhibited a collection of Coleoptera made by Mr. Pickard- 
Cambridge above Cairo. 
Mr. W. F. Evans sent for exhibition a box full of Lamellicorn beetles, or frag- 
ments of beetles, which had been picked out of some New Zealand wool; in some of 
the fleeces there were thousands of them. He inquired whether the beetles were in 
any way parasitic on the sheep, or sheep-tick feeders, or how they came to be in the 
wool? Mr. McLachlan said that thousands of the beetles occurred also in Australian 
fleeces. Mr. Janson determined the species to be Pyronota festiva; he believed that 
in the course of their flight the insects came in contact with the sheep, and became 
entangled in the wool so as to prevent their escape. 
The President exhibited some globular spiders’ nests from South Australia, whence 
they had been sent to him by Mr. Odewahn, of Gawler. The nests were found on 
branches of trees; the spiders were hanging near them, and were described as looking 
like the excrement of a bird, or as resembling the Longicorn beetle Onychocerus 
Scorpio, whilst the nests bore a remarkable resemblance to the fruit of Leptuspermum, 
one of the Myrtacew, the native tea-tree of Australia. 
Mr. S. Stevens exhibited several pairs of Cheirolasia Burkei, one of the rare Go- 
liath beetles, recently received from Afriea ; and read a letter addressed to him by M. 
Du Chaillu, dated Fernand-Vaz River, 20th August, 1864, in which the writer an- 
nounced the despatch to London of a large collection of insects, a live gorilla, anda 
number of gorilla-skins and skeletons ; he intended to start in a few days for the inte- 
rior, and would probably remain two years. Mr. Stevens mentioned that the gorilla 
had died on its passage to this country, but the collection of insects had arrived, and 
some of the Coleoptera were exhibited, including four or five species of Goliath beetles, 
G. Savagei, G. Sayii, G. torquatus, G. micans, &e, 
Mr. F. Smith exhibited a parti-coloured wasps’ nest belonging to Mr. Stone, of 
Brighthampton. Mr. Stone had a nest of Vespa Germanica in a window on the 
ground-floor, and in a corresponding position in the first-floor window, immediately 
over the other, was a nest of Vespa vulgaris ; his attention was called to the nest on 
the ground-floor by the different colours of different parts thereof, some of which were 
found to be constructed of decayed wood, such as would be used by the common wasp, 
but not by Vespa Germanica. Examination showed that the lower nest owed its con- 
struction to the united labours of both species of wasps, the different material em- 
ployed by each determining the colour of the portion built by that species. Further 
observation proved that specimens of the common wasp, when returning homewards 
with a low flight, entered the nest of V. Germanica, apparently by mistake, and de- 
ceived by the similarity of situation of the two nests. 
