384 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



whether in health or disease, not to consider plants is, in the words 

 of Mr. Darwin, 'a gigantic oversight, for these would simplify the 

 problem.' " 



Sir John Lubbock read a paper on " The Instincts of Solitary Wasps and 

 Bees." Sir John remarked that the Hive Bee and the common Wasps 

 were so familiar and so interesting that they had, to a great extent, diverted 

 attention from the so-called solitary species of the same groups. Few, for 

 instance, were aware that about 4500 species of wild Bees were known, and 

 of Wasps 1100, of which 170 and 16 respectively lived in Britain. Their 

 habits differed in almost every genus, and Sir John Lubbock referred to 

 many which offered points of great interest. For instance, the Anmophila, 

 having built her cell, placed in it, as food for her young, the full-grown 

 caterpillar of a moth, Noctua segetum. Now if the caterpillar were uninjured 

 it would struggle to escape, and almost inevitably destroy the egg; nor 

 would it permit itself to be eaten. On the other hand, if it were killed, it 

 would decay and soon become unfit for food. The Wasp, however, avoided 

 both horns of this dilemma. Having found her prey, she pierced with her 

 sting the membrane between the head and the first segment of the body, 

 thus nearly disabling the caterpillar, and then proceeded to inflict eight 

 more wounds between the following segments ; lastly, crushing the head, 

 and thus completely paralyzing her victim, but not actually killing it; so 

 that it lay helpless and motionless, but though living, let them hope 

 insensible. M. Fabre, to whom they were indebted for a most interesting 

 series of essays on that group of insects, argued that that remarkable 

 instinct could not have been gradually acquired. Sir John Lubbock had 

 suggested in a previous paper in what manner, as he supposed, that habit 

 might have been gradually acquired, and he was interested to find in 

 Mr. Darwin's ' Life,' that he had, in correspondence with M. Fabre, made 

 a very similar suggestion. M. Fabre questioned that, in bis recent work, 

 maintaining that it could not be true, because habits were invariable. Sir 

 John replied to that, giving many instances in which habits had altered, 

 and showing that several gradations existed between Wasps which killed 

 and those which paralyzed their victims. Though differing in that and 

 some other points from M. Fabre, he waimly commended his interesting 

 book and ingenious researches. One of the most interesting points con- 

 nected with the habits of the insects was that there seemed strong evidence 

 that the mother could control the sex of the egg. In conclusion, Sir John 

 mentioned with regret the death of a Queen Ant which had lived in one of 

 his nests since 1874, and must therefore have been above fourteen years 

 old — much the oldest iusect on record. 



Prof. Marsh contributed a paper on " The Restoration of Brontops 

 robustus from the Miocene of America," in which he said the animal had 

 not yet been found in Europe. 



