Insects. 3221 



flying in and out of numerous small holes in a little grassplot, in front of a house in 

 the immediate vicinity of the town. There must have been as many as forty or fifty 

 holes within the space of a couple of square yards, close to the door. I had the curi- 

 osity to dig- into the ground, and found that the holes penetrated seven or eight inches 

 deep, and each terminated in an oval cell, formed in the mould, which was rather of a 

 clayey consistence. The cells were beautifully smooth inside, measuring about half 

 an inch in the long diameter, by a quarter of an inch in the short diameter, without 

 any lining, but having the appearance of being varnished. Each cell contained a 

 small grub, and a round pellet of pollen of a dark green colour, in shape and size ex- 

 actly resembling a pea. I found in several instances two of these cells, one placed 

 exactly on the top of the other, not fitting into it, but separated by a small interval. 

 The lower part of the hole leading to the cells, when the latter were complete, was 

 filled up with loose earth. The bees appeared to throw in again the mould which 

 they first placed round the margins of the holes at the top, for on watching the place 

 for several days, I noticed that a little mound of dirt, almost like that thrown up by 

 an earth-worm, which I had noticed in the evening, had frequently disappeared in the 

 morning. I was surprized at the rapidity with which the bees reconstructed their 

 burrows, when, as I supposed, the cells at the bottom were incomplete. One day I 

 carefully stopped up some of them, obliterating all appearance of the holes at the top, 

 and by the next morning they were perfectly reformed. I do not know whether the 

 bees of this family usually stay in their burrows in the night during the progress of 

 their labours, but on digging out one of the cells in the evening I found a female bee 

 in her burrow several inches below the surface of the ground. I may here mention 

 that although I caught many individual bees, and examined them, they were all fe- 

 males, I did not notice a single male. On digging in one spot where there were seve- 

 ral bees' cells close together, I found a pupa of a coleopterous insect, contained in a 

 cell about the same size as that of one of the bees, but less compactly made and rough 

 internally, and about seven inches below the surface. The pupa was quite white, ex- 

 cept the eyes, and soft, lying in a curved position, the head and legs being doubled 

 inwards ; it was quite naked, having no membranous or other covering. I placed it 

 in a small box and took it home. On looking at it the next morning, I found that it 

 had assumed its perfect form and was walking about the box; I then recognized it as 

 the Calathus cisteloides, a very common black beetle in this neighbourhood. It was 

 still perfectly white and soft, the eyes being the only black parts. Wishing to preserve 

 it in its present state, I immersed it at once in spirits of wine, but was afterwards sorry 

 that I did not keep it alive, and notice whether exposure to light and airwould give it 

 its natural black tint. I could not discover any kind of exuviae in the box ; it seemed 

 merely to have unfolded its limbs and resumed an active life. Was the occurrence of 

 this beetle among the cells of the bees simply fortuitous ? Does the larva of the Ca- 

 lathus, when about to assume the pupa state, bury itself in the earth, and there form 

 a cell, in which it remains until ready to take on its perfect form ? Or is there any 

 probability that this insect feeds upon the larvse of the bees, and is thus found among 

 ihem ? I ask these questions, as there appears to be very little known at present re- 

 specting the transformations of the tribe of predaceous beetles. — Id. 



On the occurrence of Aphides in an Ants' Nest. — On the afternoon of May 3, 1851, 

 I found two large Aphides under a flat stone, in the midst of a colony of small red 

 ants (Mi/rmica rubra). They were walking about leisurely, and were surrounded by 

 numbers of ants, which seemed to take no notice of them, but on being disturbed 



