Entomological Society. 3469 



insect causing the damage ; at present it was supposed to be the larva of the Lepido- 

 pterous Gracillaria ? Vau-flava. 



Mr. Douglas called the attention of the members to the subject of insects found 

 impaled on thorns, stating that Mr. Gould had informed him, with reference to the spe- 

 cimens presented by him to the Society last year, his opinion was that they were not 

 placed upon the thorns by shrikes, as was generally supposed, because those birds had 

 not at the time he found them arrived in this country, and the insects were uninjured, 

 which was not likely to have been the case if those birds had so placed them ; more- 

 over, he afterwards found some bees transfixed on spines of furze in the north of Scot- 

 land, where shrikes never go. No doubt shrikes did impale insects, because it was one 

 of their characteristics to hang up their food before eating it, whence they had derived 

 the name of "butcher-birds;" and the same practice obtained also in the aberrant 

 shrikes of Australia, but then they left only fragments of their prey. He believed that 

 insects were blown by gusts of wind on to the thorns. Mr. Douglas further said that 

 he had mentioned the subject to Mr. Doubleday, who told him that he once saw a 

 Leucania Comma transfixed by a spine of dry furze, placed on the top of a garden- 

 wall to keep away cats. The head of the moth was towards the spine, as if it had been 

 arrested in the position of its flight at the moment. Mr. Douglas requested the mem- 

 bers to bring before the Society any instances of impaled insects that might come un- 

 der their notice, and that they would observe the position of the insect with regard to 

 the thorn. 



Mr. Bond was of opinion that shrikes placed bees on thorns, even in cases where 

 they were found uninjured, for he had known those birds to hang up their prey, leave 

 it, and afterwards return and eat it. 



Mr. Douglas exhibited a bee, recently captured, with three female Stylops in the 

 abdomen. 



The President said that no greater number than three had hitherto been observed 

 in a bee, but Dr. Burmeister, who had just returned from a sojourn of eighteen months 

 in Brazil, had informed him that he had there seen seven Stylops in one wasp. The 

 President added that Dr. Burmeister had brought with him a large store of insects 

 and entomological information, and had directed particular attention to the transfor- 

 mations of the Lepidoptera. 



Mr. W. W. Saunders communicated the following note from Mr. S. S. Saunders 

 in Albania, dated " Prevera, March 2, 1852;" and exhibited the piece of bramble- 

 stem referred to : — 



" To return to the Hylaeus (H. Rubicola). I should observe that my object in now 

 sending the briar is to call attention to the middle cell of the three, which has not pro- 

 duced any larva, consequently the store remains therein as at the first, and consists of 

 the liquid acidulous honey which forms their food in the larva state, and the cells are 

 invariably (as in this instance) only half full thereof, the larva being preserved from 

 contamination therewith until ready to feed ; and you will further observe that the 

 thin cases wherein such store is deposited, are prepared by the parent Hylaius, and are 

 not to be ascribed to the progeny, the honey-bag containing the store being here pre- 

 served intact where no larva has been produced, and closed as at first. The gallery is 

 exclusively that of a Hylaeus, without any trace of other inmates, and I conceive that 

 these facts will be deemed to offer conclusive testimony to the non-parasitic habits of 

 Hylaeus Bubicola." 



