9142 Entomological Society. 
securely attaching the combs to the wooden frames. The difference between new and 
old wax was so great as to preclude the possibility of one being mistaken for the other; 
and hence Mr. Tegetmeier could only conclude that the bees, with the intention of 
taking possession of the empty hive, had assembled in it in considerable numbers and 
clustered together to secrete wax, which they had then employed to strengthen the 
attachments of the combs, so as to enable them to bear the weight of the honey, bee- 
bread and brood, with. which the cells would be filled shortly after a swarm should 
take possession of the hive. 
Mr. Tegetmeier also said that about two years ago he had brought under the notice 
of the Suciety the fact that bees in the perfect state were in the habit of eating pollen 
or bee-bread, which was previously supposed to be collected solely as food for the 
larvee; during the present year he had obtained indubitable proof of the consumption 
of pollen by the bees themselves, having captured several in the very act of eating it 
on the alighting-boards or entrances to the hives. Microscopical examination showed 
that in each instance the stomach was filled with pollen-grains; and Mr. Tegetmeier 
thought there was no good ground for suspecting that the pollen thus eaten was after- 
wards disgorged with the honey in the stomach as food for the larve. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited a case-bearing larva which had been found by Mr. 
Douglas at Box Hill, apparently feeding on wild thyme. Prof. Westwood was of 
opinion that it was a larva of the Coleopterous genus Clythra. 
Mr. Bates read the following extract from a letter recently received by him from 
Mr. Roland Trimen, of Cape Town :— 
“T have just noticed a very remarkable instance of close imitation of a flower by a 
spider. Leptoneura Clytus, a handsome Sutyrus, is very abundant here just now. 
Flowers are rather scarce at this season, and a tall straggling plant with yellow com- 
posite flowers attracts these butterflies, with many other insects. As I approached a 
plant upon which were several Clytus, L observed that two specimens did not fly off 
with the others, and found that each was in the clutches of a bright yellow spider. 
I removed one of these butterflies, and as the spider shrunk up its limbs on the flower, 
which it equals in size, it was scarcely distinguishable, so exactly similar was it in 
colour. But it was after this that it assumed its astonishing likeness to the flower. 
Recovering from its alarm (I suppose), it slowly moved to the side of the flower, and, 
holding on to the stalk by its two hindmost pairs of legs, extended the two front pairs 
upwards and laterally. In this position it was scarcely possible to believe that it was 
not a flower seen in profile, the rounded abdomen representing the central mass of 
florets, and the extended legs the ray-florets, while, to complete the illusion, the front 
femora, appressed to the thorax, have each a longitudinal red stripe which represents 
the ferruginous stripe on the sepals of the flower! As the other spider also assumed 
the same attitude when robbed of his butierfly, and as both retained it fur a consider- 
able time (I left them sv), { conclude that it is their ordinary mode of waiting for 
their prey. I enclose the flower, and shall be glad to hear its name.” 
Mr. Bates added that the flower was the Senecio pubigerus of Linneus, a very 
common road-side weed in dry ground, &c., about Cape Town, and the spider 
belonged to the genus Salticus; he cbnsidered this case of mimetic resemblance 
peculiarly valuable, since the purpose or object of the imitation was so plainly 
manifest. 
Major Parry sent for exhibition a male specimen (var, minor) of Odvntolabis 
