93 



Mr. Smith observed, that the preliminary remarks of Mr. Newman would lead one 

 to expect a record of some new facts in the history of humble bees, but that he could 

 not discover anything bearing even the aspect of novelty, except the statement that 

 " the males leave the nest but once, never to return." Upon this point, he had some 

 observations to make, since it was at variance with his own experience and observa- 

 tion. Mr. Smith said that in many particulars the social bees differ from the solitary 

 species ; thus, amongst solitary species, the males are the first to make their appear- 

 ance, whereas the contrary obtains in social communities : the males also of the soli- 

 tary species fly to their nests on the approach of night, or the passing of a summer 

 cloud, so also do the males of the hive-bee. Mr. Smith observed that Mr. Newman's 

 Apis lerrestris he had undoubtedly considered identical with A. lucorum, and had pro- 

 bably considered all the yellow-banded species, except hortorum, as constituting but 

 one, in which he was mistaken ; Mr. Newman's Apis terrestris being the lucorum, as 

 proved by his description of the male. Mr. Smith said he had some doubt whether 

 the Bombus lucorum really was so much more numerous in the North ; in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, and indeed in Kent, Surrey and Hampshire it is much more nu- 

 merous than terrestris ; but if Mr. Newman meant that the black and yellow-banded 

 species are more numerous, he was probably correct. Mr. Smith said that some years 

 ago he collected a number of Bombi in Yorkshire, and there the Bombus Raiellus 

 abounds, this being Mr. Newman's variety of Lapidaria found in Scotland : this spe- 

 cies he had always found constructing a moss nest, not building in old walls, but in 

 meadows. 



Mr. Smith said he had occasionally found Bombi in coitu (B. pratorum, June 20, 

 1847, B. lapidarius, July 27, both before 10, a.m., B. soroensis, in the Battersea- 

 fields, August 19, 1840), and was of opinion that the reason why such connexions were 

 not more frequently observed, was to be explained by the fact of their taking place 

 usually at an early hour. In the month of June, a few years ago, he discovered a 

 large colony of Andrena fulvescens in the after part of the day : there were thousands 

 of their little hillocks turned up in the hard-trodden pathway, and a few females en- 

 tering and issuing from them. The morning following, on revisiting the colony be- 

 tween 9 and 10 o'clock, he observed numbers in coitu. With regard to Mr. Newman's 

 observation that the males of the Bombinatrices " leave the nest but once, never to 

 return,'' Mr. Smith stated, that on the 10th of August, 1838, he found a nest of B. 

 Raiellus constructed of moss, in a bank in the Hackney-marshes, and not knowing to 

 which species it belonged, he gently raised it, and found some combs of empty cells, 

 except a little honey in one or two of them, and four or five workers and one female. 

 He then replaced the upper portion of the nest, and left it till he returned on his way 

 home, when with a silk handkerchief he secured the nest, together with its contents : 

 these proved to be four females, ten workers, and six males. These had all no doubt 

 returned towards the evening, and he was quite confident there were no males there 

 in the morning. There remained only the possibility of the subsequent development 

 of the males, which he felt satisfied did not take place during the interval ; the combs 

 were in too empty a state to contain young brood, and when he examined them at 

 home, they contained no brood of either sex. He also felt pretty sure of having ob- 

 served the male of Bombus terrestris entering the nest ; but his crowning remark was 

 that Mr. Kirby, in his observations on B. Lapidarius, alluding to the male, says, " I 

 have myself seen this insect entering the nidus of A. lapidaria." 



The President read the conclusion of his Memoir on the genus Evaniaand its allies. 



