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OCTOBER 4th, 1906. 



The twenty-first regular meeting was held at the usual place, 

 Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy in the chair. 



Notes and Exhibitions. 



Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy exhibited specimens of a large black 

 Staphylinid Beetle, which came to light commonly. Mr. Schwarz 

 has doubtfully determined it, as Philonthus prolatus Sharp, a 

 Japanese species. Mr. Kotinsky observed that this species 

 occurs quite often in manure. 



Papers Read. 



Tribolium ferrugineum (Fabr.) [CoL], an Enemy of Megachile 



palmarum Perkins [Hymen]. 



By Jacob Kotinsky. 



Among a large colony of cells of the bee, 2 specimens of the 

 beetle were detected. V/hen one of these cells was opened a 

 larva of the same beetle was found within and no trace of any 

 stage of the bee. Several bee cells had the side exit-holes of the 

 beetle. The cells were put away in a breeding tube and several 

 more beetles issued subsequently. The presumption is that the 

 beetle oviposits upon the bee cell, and the grub therefrom bores 

 its way into the cell. Whether its food therein is the pollen 

 bread or the bee larva has not been ascertained, but the latter 

 invariably dies either from starvation or injuries inflicted by the 

 beetle larva. This Megachilid being seriously destructive to 

 many shade and ornamental plants about Honolulu, it was grati- 

 fying to find an enemy preying upon it. A remarkable coincidence 

 is that the same species of beetle was collected in a recent large 

 shipment of rice for Honolulu. 



Mr. F. W. Terry remarked that the beetle-larva might have 

 been feeding on the pollen in the bee-cells, and therefore it would 

 be only indirectly an enemy of the bee. 



