118 



number of the species. My paper was only an extract. I mention my selection of 

 four for examples, being the most common. I know at least ten species which make 

 honey. Mr. Kirby enumerates nearly one hundred of the wild bees in his work. 



"2. The Apis Derbamellus I am unacquainted with byname, hut from description 

 I presume it is a black bee, like A. lapidaria. 



"3. In the numerous nests which I took for seven or eight summers, I always 

 selected those which had at least two-thirds of their combs in brood, generally before 

 the males were hatched. In all cases, when the males were hatched they left the nest 

 and never returned ; those which escaped during the digging out of my numerous 

 nests, never came back to the place like the workers. 



" I mentioned the case of the nest in my own garden this year: now Mr. Walcott, 

 who mentioned the nest on Durdham Down this year, says that in ihe third week in 

 August he saw males entering the nest ! This is still more extraordinary, as in all my 

 long experience of fifty years, I never saw nests of Bombus Derhamellus. Long be- 

 fore this, in my nest of B. lapidarius, the males were all gone and over, the queens 

 looking out for holes to stop in. In 1850, the males in all the nests here, a hilly and 

 late country, were all out and gone by the middle of August, and many of them much 

 sooner, it being a fine summer. 



" I had nests within a hundred yards of my house, when I lived at Thornbury Park, 

 of the Apis terrestris, A. hortoruin, and A. muscorum ; these nests I visited nearly 

 every day in July and August, and no males ever entered. 



" By the last week in August this year, the development of all the bees had takeu 

 place, and the purposes of their existence accomplished. 



" Lastly, the pastime of the drones is much more easily shown than the other ques- 

 tions, and in any fine day, towards the end of July, it may be observed between the 

 hours of 10 and 3 o'clock. I grant that the sun and wind have a good deal to do with 

 the movements of all insects. I trust next summer to have the pleasure of meeting 

 Mr. Smith and .Mr. Walcott ' at Philippi ' to settle the argument. 



"Now respecting Mr. Smith's remark about the Apis lapidaria, I will assure him 

 that there is one, if not two, species of wild bees in the West of England, which do 

 not inhabit Clydesdale, which is a most prolific field for A. terrestris. One species of 

 A. lapidaria, with a yellow band and a broim red abdomen, is most common, and uni- 

 versally has its nest in walls. 



"Mr. Smith also mistakes my observation about the organ of locality in the drones. 

 I merely contend that as far as their nest is concerned, the males leave it without the 

 least observation, and are never intended to return, like the workers, which act entirely 

 differently. When the males become vagabonds, they then commence the round of 

 visits described by me until they perish." 



The President read a portion of his Report on the Entomological Productions in 

 the Great Exhibition, showing from the examples therein how much society was in- 

 debted to insect labours. 



The Secretary read some extracts of -a letter from Mr. H. W. Bates, dated Para, 

 October 8, in which he stated his intention of going into the interior for the purpose 

 of exploring a hranch of the Amazon not yet visited by any naturalist. 



Part 7, Vol. i., n. s., of the Society's ' Transactions ' was announced to be ready. 



The Secretary called the attention of the meeting to 'A Memoir on the Pselaphidae 

 of the United States, by J. L. Le Coute, M.D.,' in ' The Boston Journal of Natural 

 History,' Vol. vi. No. 1, 1850 ; of which the following is an abstract : — 



