37 



densely covered with it. Arrived at this stage they drop off from the Fulgorae, and 

 retire to some safe place, where they may undergo their transformation to the pupa 

 state. I have not been able to discover in what way the insect spins its coating of 

 cotton into a cocoon, but it is evident that it does do so, forming a comfortable look- 

 ing, compact nidus, lined internally with strong and stiff material. The period 

 during which the insect remains in the pupa state is very variable ; in one instance 

 it was nine days, in another, upwards of two months ; the latter case was during the 

 cool season, the former, last month. On attaining the perfect state the insect makes 

 its escape from its nidus by an opening at one end, leaving the pupa-case protruding 

 therefrom about half its length, like the Oiketici. 



" The specimen labelled ' No. 2,' I consider particularly interesting. I had it in 

 my box for some time, when one day a number of minute Hymenoptera issued from 

 it, parasites on a parasite. I was unable, to my regret, to capture any of these, for 

 they were so small that they escaped through the gauze covering of my breeding- 

 cage, and I did not perceive them till it was too late." 



Mr. Bowring adds that, although it will be deemed very extraordinary, he thinks 

 the insect reared from the Coccus-like parasite is Lepidopterous. Unfortunately the 

 insect he reared and forwarded became so broken on its journey that not sufficient re- 

 mained to show to what order it belonged. 



The following note by Mr. Newman was read, on 



" The way Bees open the Snapdragons. — I have been much amused and instructed 

 by watching wild bees of the genera Bombus and Megachile open the blossoms of the 

 snapdragons, that is, the garden varieties of Antirrhinum majus. This species is so 

 great a favourite with the bees, that the flowers are frequently destroyed by the assi- 

 duity of their visitors, and one variety in particular, the corolla of which is unusually 

 delicate, rarely attains perfection unless enclosed by a covering of gauze or glass. 



" I have remarked in the first place the truth of the assertion, which I fear I have 

 too often condemned as merely poetic, that the same individual bee never tries the 

 same flower a second time. Even though it shall have sipped at fifty of these little 

 fountains of nectar between two visits to any particular flower, and though on the 

 second visit, it shall approach that particular flower quite as eagerly as on the first, 

 yet it is simply a visit of inquiry, as it invariably leaves the flower, without the 

 slightest attempt to enter it a second time. Now how does the bee ascertain that 

 the sweets of the flower have already been rifled by herself? What organ of sense 

 aids her in making the discovery ? Certainly the fact of the honey having been ab- 

 stracted is not perceptible, for I watched a bee enter every one of six flowers on a 

 plant, and in the space of a few minutes, another bee did the same ; and then another, 

 and another : as many as fifteen or twenty bees will occasionally come to an isolated 

 plant within an hour, and the last comer will not appear aware of the previous visits ; 

 and yet the same bee never opens the same flower twice. 



" In the second place there are four different modes, practised by as many species, 

 in which the pollen or honey is obtained : these I will describe separately. 



" 1. Megachile centuncularis alights on the upper Yip of the flower, and crawls into 

 the mouth with its back downwards ; and the hairy pollen-brush of its abdomen 

 is closely appressed, by the elastic spring in the under lip of the flower to the hairy in- 

 terior surface of the upper: by this means the pollen is brushed from the anthers and 

 received by the pollen-brush of the bee, and also by the hairy interior surface of the 

 upper lip of the flower : as this bee disappears within the corolla it is fair to assume it 



