lU 



being an excellent mimic of Danais Juventa, and most nearly allied to H. Mena of 

 Moore. 



February 15, 1869. 

 H. W. Bates, Esq., President, in the chair. 



Election of Members. 

 Arthur Wynne Foot, Esq., M.D., of 21, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin, was 

 elected an Annual Subscriber. 



Exhibitions, ^c. 



Prof. Weslwood exhibited two parasites on bats from Ceylon, both Diptera, a 

 Strebla and a Nycteribia, prepared for the microscope in Canada balsam, by 

 Mr. Staniforth Green, of Colombo. They were simply pressed between sheets of 

 paper, an aperture haviuf? been made for the escape of the fluid matter, and whilst 

 still moist were laid on the glass, and the balsam, heated over a spirit lamp and 

 poured on hot, filled up the interstices and made the preparation transparent. 



Mr. Butler exhibited a living locust of the genus Conocephalus: it had been 

 received by Mr. Swanzy in London on tbe 2nd of February, and arrived on board a 

 ship from the West coast of Africa. A swarm of them covered the decks, being at first 

 green, but after about three days they became brown, probably from the absence of 

 green food : notwithstanding exposure for some days to a very heavy sea, many speci- 

 mens clung to the vessel and arrived in the Thames alive. The one exhibited had 

 taken nothing since its arrival but a little water, except on one occasion when it was 

 compelled to clean its face of some sugar which Mr. Butler placed on it. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a collection of honey bees from all parts of the world, and 

 solicited the loan of foreign species, the localities of which were known, to extend his 

 knowledge of ibeir geographical distribution and assist him in the preparation of a 

 memoir on the honey bees supplementary to that published by him some few years ago 

 in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' : it was very desii'able to obtain all 

 the sexes of all the species, as the workers alone did not offer sufliciently marked 

 characters to determine the identity or specific distinctness of many of the forms. 

 Among the bees exhibited there were, a queen of Apis mellifica which was with diffi- 

 culty to be distinguished from a worker; all the sexes of Apis Ligustica and fasciata 

 (the latter, in the opinion of Dr. Gerstacker was only a variety, but Mr. Smith thought 

 he could show its distinctness) ; the male and worker of A. Indica, sent by Mr. Atkin- 

 son, of Calcutta ; a queen, sent by Mr. Lewis from Japan, very closely resembling the 

 common A. mellifica ; specimens of A. nigrocincta (considered by Gerstacker to be a 

 variety of A. Indica) ; all the sexes of A. floralis, the smallest known honey bee (the 

 worker of which is the A. lobata of Smith) ; A dorsata, the largest and commonest in 

 India and the Eastern Archipelago (of which A. testacea was only a variety) ; aud all 

 the sexes of a bee horn the Cape of Good Hope which might be only A. Ligustica, but 

 was considerably larger. Mr. Smith also exhibited pieces of the comb of various 

 species; the worker cells of the above-mentioned bee from the Cape were one-tenth 



