3292 Entomological Society. 



one side, that by which it had been affixed to the breeding-cage, being open and 

 showing the pupa. 



Mr. F. Smith exhibited a mass of cocoons of Aphomia sociella, found on the coast 

 of the Isle of Wight. 



Mr. Weir exhibited many species of Depressaria, lately captured, and a specimen 

 of Gelechia lentiginosella, reared from a caterpillar which fed on Genista tinctoria. 



Mr. W. Thomson sent for exhibition a box of Coleoptera, collected at Morocco by 

 Mr. Drummond Hay, containing, among other interesting insects, a specimen of the 

 British species, Nebria complanata. 



Mr. Janson exhibited a box of fine Coleoptera from Himalaya. 



Mr. Adam White exhibited a copy of a manuscript on spiders, by Mr. Joseph Dan- 

 dridge, or Daindridge, an apothecary, who lived in Moorfields in the days of Petiver 

 and Sloane. He was a keen collector of British spider?, and wrote descriptions of 

 them, which were subsequently published by Albin in 1736. He found " above a hun- 

 dred and forty kinds of them in England only," (see Bradley's ' Works of Nature,' p. 

 131, 1721). Mr. W. mentioned a New Zealand genus, and a curious species of New 

 Zealand spider, named after this indefatigable collector ; he also pointed out the clear 

 manner in which Lister and Dandridge had described the habits and markings of the 

 British spiders, directed the attention of the entomologists present to this interesting 

 group, and requested them to collect specimens. He mentioned that Mr. Blackwall 

 had commenced in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' a series of papers 

 on British spiders, and said that the arachnologist of Denbighshire had undertaken 

 for the Ray Society a volume on the subject, which would include the descriptions 

 and figures so admirably detailed and drawn by his friend Mr. Templeton, when re- 

 siding near Belfast, a manuscript which Mr. W. some years ago urged the Zoological 

 Society to publish. He alluded to the labours of Dr. George Johnston, of Berwick, 

 on the mites of Berwick, published in the ' Proceedings of the Berwickshire Natural- 

 ists' Club ;' and concluded by reading an extract from a MSS. journal of his own, 

 written in France in 1841 : this extract referred to Walckenaer, Fabricius, and La- 

 treille, and their labours in Arachnology. 



The following communication from Mr. H. W. Newman, of Stroud, was read: — 



" In the ' Proceedings' (p. 93) I find my friend and brother member of the Soci- 

 ety, Mr. Smith, has criticised my paper on the Bombinatrices, and seems to doubt the 

 veracity of the statements respecting the drones; and I do not wonder at this, for any 

 casual observer may come to the same conclusion. This very summer I have a fine 

 nest of Apis lapidaria in my kitchen-garden, at the foot of the wall, which, for the last 

 six weeks, I have watched at nearly all hours ; and though they have had a traffic of 

 the average of three per minute entering, I have never seen one male go in. 



" The wild bees are of an inoffensive character, and not in sufficient numbers (like 

 the hive-bees) to expel the males ; and the Creator has ordained that they shall leave 

 the nest voluntarily and never return, they not having the same 'organ of locality' as 

 the workers, for they make no observation like the workers : and yet they know their 

 way to flowers, and have certain haunts. I watched one of the Apis hortorura a few 

 days ago come exactly every three minutes and a half, for two hours, to two spots 

 within view, hover about them as if going to settle, and then move on somewhere 

 else. I can assure Mr. Smith that it cost me many months' observation, for a dozen 

 summers at least, before I could fathom their pastime, but at last I found it out, as I 

 believe firmly when the males of the different species leave their nests, the 'Great 



