9216 Tnsects. 
when produced: thus by placing combs or pieces of comb in particular positions the 
insects are literally compelled, iv their endeavours to cover them in, to carry out the 
design of the person so placing them. 
“One reason why the work was not attached either to the back or front of cases 
4,5 and 6 was, that the pillars or columns were placed at some distance from each of 
those sides, and as there were no intervening combs, or pieces of comb, to be covered 
in, the operations of the insects did not extend in either of those directions sufficiently 
far to reach them during the period they were allowed to remain in each box.” 
Mr. Stainton exhibited a new Gelechia, allied to G. nigricostella, and for which he 
proposed the specific name of Lathyri, the moth having been bred by Mr. Brown, of 
Cambridge, from larve which fed on Lathyrus palustris. 
Prof. Westwood mentioned that the larve found by Captain Cox i in a bin of bran, 
and exhibited at the Meeting on the 2nd of May last, had proved to be Pyralis 
farinalis, 
> Paper read. 
«Mr. Roland Trimen, of Cape Town, communicated a paper entitled “ Descriptions 
of some new Species of Butterflies found in Southern Africa.” Sixteen species were 
characterized, one of which belonged to the Pieridw, one to Satyride, six to the 
Lycenida, and eight to the Hesperide. Ten out of the sixteen were discovered by 
Mr. James Henry Bowker, Inspector of Mounted Police, who for several years has 
devoted his leisure to the observation and cullection of the Flora and Fauna (especially 
the Lepidoptera) of Kaffraria. 
New Part of * Transactions.’ 
A new part of the Society's ‘ Transactions’ (Third Series, Vol. ii. Part 1), being 
the second quarterly Part for 1864, containing Major Parry’s Catalogue of the 
Lucanoid Coleoptera, with descriptions of new, and remarks on some of the rarer, 
species, and illustrated with twelve plates, was announced as ready for distribution.— 
JW. D. 
Scarcity or Abundance of Wasps in 1864.—I partly agree with my friend Mr. F. 
Smith (Zool. 9137) as to the causes in this case: at present the wasps are becoming 
numerous in this locality earlier than usual, owing to the dryness of the spring. I had 
a nest in my lawn with more than a hundred young wasps on the Ist of July: this is 
early. Nothing is so inimical to the queen-wasps as a wet spring: they generally 
make their appearance between the 15th and 20th of April, and should a cold, wet 
month follow this at least three-fourths of them die. A vast number appearing in 
April or early in May is uo criterion of their abounding at the end of the summer; 
but I am of opivion that wasps will be very numerous in Gloucestershire this summer, 
as the nests are being found in great numbers in all directions. Another observation 
made by me is this, that when on a visit to a friend in Hampshire in August, twenty- 
five years ago, I found wasps very numerous and mischievous to the wall-fruit; while at 
the same time, in Gloucestershire, wasps were exceedingly scarce, and no annoyance 
whatever. I have also found a very open, mild winter, with continuous rain, a very 
great cause of the diminution of these insects in the following spring, and indeed of 
all the Hymenoptera. A sinaller and darker species, I have noticed, is very rare, and 
seldom appears except in dry seasons.—H. W. Newman; Hillside, Cheltenham, July, 
1864. 
