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nest of the wasp, downwards. The cells were entirely filled with brood ; T 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. As far as I could 

 number the honey-pots I counted about 250. 



"In one particular the nesl of Trigona difl'ers 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 ihe hive 

 of Trigona are very diiferent from those of the hive bee. In the latter case the combs 

 consist of a double series of cells, and are suspended vertically, and on ihe 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- 

 pving 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. Guerin 

 having found six in a nest of Melipona fiilvipes, a genus very closely allied to Tri- 

 gona. 



" In Mr. Gosse's ' Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica ' is a very interesting account of 

 a nest of a species of Tiigona. It is extracted from the journal of his friend Mr. Hill, 

 who writes as follows : — ' The wax of these bees is very uncluous and dark-coloured, but 

 susceptible of being whitened by bleaching. The honey is stored in clusiers 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 wijole 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 qualiiy. 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., Kesident 

 Surgeon of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, a living female specimen of the common 

 wasp, which had on the previous day (Dec. 6ih) flown into Mr. Williams' bed-room. 



The following was communicated by Mr. C. A. Wilson, of Adelaide: — 



Notes on the South- Australian C'alosoma Curtisii. 

 " The genus Calosoma being a remarkable one in a favourite family, I have 

 thought ihat a few notes, from personal 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 picked up by carters as ' something curious.' I was asked to name the insect 



