1 



and in one case he had known a nest to he placed on the edj^^e of a door, and it was 

 seven times crushed by ihe shuttinjj of the door, and seven times renewed before ihe 

 little bee could be induced to forsake the spot she had chosen. Some of the nests 

 exhibited were placed in very singular positions 5 one, of a leaf-cutting bee, was in the 

 handle or ear of a terra colta vase, access being obtained through a small hole in the 

 narrow lower end of the handle; another, belonging to a Pelopsus, and consisting of 

 a single mud-cell, was attached to a man's signet or linger-ring the stone of which had 

 fallen out, and was fastened to the met;il by means of a coil or knot of mud passed 

 through the hole where the stune had been; a third nest of a bee consisted of u 

 spherical mass of cells which was found in the centre (filling up the whole hollow) of 

 the nest of a mouse, which was suspended in grass. 



Prof. Westwood mentioned that at Oxford he had found a mouse's nest in the 

 centre of one of his bee-hives, surrounded by a number of headless bees. 



Mr. Home also exhibited a strong eartliern cocoon, dug out of the ground, and 

 containing a large species of Sternocera; he had frequently found the perfect beetle, 

 thus encased, and it was the regular habit of this species of Buprestidae. (Compare 

 the habit of Lucanus cervus, ante, p. ix.) 



Prof. Westwood exhibited drawings and gave some account of various remarkable 

 insects, including (1) a species of Leptocorisa (Cimicida?, Coreidie) sent by Mr. 

 Thwailes, from Ceylon, where it was very injurious to the rice crop, sucking the juices 

 of the plant — it was probably identical with the local variety of Cimex varicornis which 

 he (Prof. Westwood) had described under the name Bengalensis ; (2) an Ichneumon 

 and an Epeira, the larva of the former bf;ing an external parasite on the body of the 

 •Sipider; other instances of external parasitic larvaj were, Eulophus (Chalcididae) on u 

 willow-gall saw-fly, and larvae of a Scolia on larvae of the Lamellicorn beetle, Oryctes ; 

 (3) a new species of Coleoptera from the Niger, referable to the genus Aprostoma of 

 Guerin, with which it was suggested that botli Mecedanum of Erichson and Gempy- 

 lodes of Pascoe might probably be united ; (4) a beautiful species of Lamiidae, from the 

 Zambesi ; (5) a second species of the genus Ectrephes of Pascoe (Proc. Ent. Soc. 1866, 

 p. xvi) ; and (6) a new genus in Count Mniszech's collection, allied to Rhyssodes, and 

 intended to be described as Rhyssodina. 



Mr. A. E. Eaton communicated the following note : — 



" Dr. A- S. Packard, jun., has very kindly sent me a separate of a paper by him, 

 'On the structure of the Ovipositor and Homologous parts in the Male Insect, from the 

 Froc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. xi. (Feb. 26, 1868), in which he has corrected his 

 •earlier observations. The result of his later investigations is to confirm M. Lacaze- 

 Dulhier's statement that ' les tarierts des Nevropieres sont semblables aux larieres des 

 Hymenopteres,'' which his earlier conclusions had (as I showed in Trans. Ent. Soc. 

 1868, p. 143) contradicted ; and the paper also shows in what way the Fremh author 

 came to be mistaken in supposing that the sling grew out from the ninth segment 

 alone." 



Mr. Frederick Smith read the following:— 



On the Affinities of the Genus Sibyllina, of IVcstwood. 

 " At the Meeting of this Society on the 16th of November, Professor Westwood 

 described, under the numesSibylliua a;nigmalica, an insect that has for some years 



1 



