9704 Entomological Society. 



The following is extracted from a letter addressed to Mr. F. Smith by Mr. S. Stone, 

 of BrighihamptoD, near Witney, dated April 29, 1865: — 



"Great as was the number of female wasps which made their appearance last 

 spring, and early as was the period at which they commenced their labours, they have 

 this year appeared in still greater number, and have begun work at a still earlier 

 period. The weather to the end of March was bitterly cold, but a sudden change then 

 took place, and a more gloriously hot and fine April I should think was never known. 

 On the 2ud of the month I observed a female wasp out lor the first time, and the 

 forcing weather which had then set iu soon brought them out in swarms. On their 

 first appearance I as usual began to form suitable cavities in banks, &c.,for the recep- 

 tion of nests, and on the 19th I took duI from one of these cavities my first specimen ; 

 it belonged to Vespa Germanica, and consisted of a single cell at the extremity of a 

 foot-stalk. On the following day a nest of V. sylveslris was discovered attached to a 

 branch of a creeper growing beside a cottage-porch ; one covering of this nest had been 

 completed, a second was far advanced towards completion, and a third had been begun. 

 It contained a small comb consisting of nine cells, in six of which eggs had been 

 deposited. This nest must have beeu begun during the first, or at any rate before the 

 middle of the second, week in April — a period unprecedentedly early, so far as my 

 experience goes. Some idea of the number of queen wasps frequenting the neighbour- 

 hood this season may be formed when I state that, sitting quietly for half an hour the 

 other evening upon a spot around which were numerous deserted burrows of the 

 common mole, I observed no less than seven individuals enter these burrows, where 

 each of course had begun to form a nest within a few yards of me ; and yesterday 

 (28th April) on examining a portion of the cavities or chambers I had recently formed, 

 I found that as many as thirty-five of them had become tenanted. There were nests 

 of all the four species most generally distributed, Vespa Germanica, V. vulgaris, V. rufa 

 and V. sylvestris ; while all around might be seen individuals still iu search of eligible 

 building sites." 



The President exhibited some young dog-ticks, quite recently hatched from eggs 

 laid in May by the identical female Ixodes which he had taken away from the 

 February Meeting of the Society (Zool. 9503), and which he had mentioned at the 

 March Meeting (Zool. 9542) as having been re-captured when attempting to escape 

 after having been gummed down to a card for a fortnight. 



New Part of^ Transactions.' 

 The first Part of Trans. Ent, Soc, Third Series, vol. iv., containing the commence- 

 ment of Mr. J. S. Baly's Kevision of the Malayan Phytophaga, was on the table.— 

 J. W. D. 



Erratum. — In the report of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society, June 5, 

 1865 (Zool. 9642), for " Mr. Bond also exhibited a Saturnia Polyphemus and its 

 cocoon, and a large Ophion which had emerged from the same cocoon," read as 

 follows: — "Mr. Bond exhibited a Saturnia Polyphemus and its cocoon; also a large 

 Ophiou and its cocoon." — /. W. D. 



