Entomological Society. 8901 
nest of the wasp, downwards. The cells were entirely filled with brood ; I could find 
very few not occupied. None of them contained honey ; all the honey collected I 
concluded is always stored in honey-pots at the foot of the nest. 
“Tn one particular the nest of Trigona differs materially from that of the wasp in 
the mode of its construction: the combs are built over each other, the lower comb 
being first constructed, so that it increases in size upwards, that of the wasp being 
enlarged downwards. Thus it will be seen at once that the arrangements of the hive 
of Trigona are very different to those of the hive bee. In the latter case the combs 
consist of a double series of cells, and are suspended vertically, and on the receptacles 
proper of the honey itself as well as of the brood. I am, however, inclined to the 
opinion that the hive of Trigona contains several prolific females; the accounts given 
of the multitudes inhabiting some nests is too great I think to render it possible that 
one female could produce them all. Mr. Stretch described a hive that he saw occu- 
pying the interior of a decaying tree that measured ‘six feet in length, and the multi- 
tude of bees he compared to a black cloud. That there is more than one female in 
the hive of Trigona is, I think, rendered almost certain, from the fact of M. Guérin 
having found six in a nest of Melipona fulvipes, a genus very closely allied to Tri- 
gona. 
“Tn Mr. Gosse’s ‘ Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica’ is a very interesting account of 
a nest of a species of Trigona. It is extracted from the journal of his friend Mr. Hill, 
who writés as follows :— The wax of these bees is very unctuous and dark-coloured, but 
susceptible of being whitened by bleaching. The honey is stored in clusters of cups, 
about the size of pigeon’s eggs, at the bottom of the hive, and always from the brood- 
cells. The brood-cells are hexagonal,—they are not deep, and the young ones, when 
ready to burst their cerement, just fill the whole cavity. The mother bee is lighter 
in colour than the other bees, and elongated at the abdomen to double their length.’ 
“ The wax of which the nest of Trigona carbonaria is constructed differs in quality 
materially from that of the hive bee. Mr. Woodbury, who obtained_the nest from 
Australia, had tested it in some degree, and scarcely considered it to be properly wax, 
taking that of the hive bee as the standard of quality. On holding it in a flame it 
does not melt as bees’-wax does, but ignites and burns with a red flame. If analysed 
it would probably prove to be composed principally, of resinous gum.” 
During the Meeting the Secretary received from Charles Williams, Esq., Resident 
Surgeon of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, a living female specimen of the common 
wasp, which had on the previous day (December 6th) flown into Mr. Williams’ bed- 
room. 
The following was communicated by Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide :— 
Notes on the South-Australian Calosoma Curtisii. 
“The genus Calosoma being a remarkable one in a favourite family, I have 
thought that a few notes, from persunal observation, on the economy of our only known 
species would be interesting. (There is said to be another species of Calosoma native 
of our province, smaller and of a black colour, but I cannot hear of any one who . 
either has found or possesses it.) C. Curtisii was first found about five years after the 
establishment of this colony. In the month of November, 1841, they were brought 
singly into town from the North (as a few miles north of Adelaide was then called), 
being pieked up by carters as ‘something curious. I was asked to name the insect 
