4208 Royal Society of Edinburgh. 



" I wish to record the habits of this bee, which I observed during a visit to Turr- 

 bridge Wells. 



"On the 13th of July I saw considerable numbers flying over a foot-path by the 

 side of a heath, many of them were burrowing in the earth, and others were paired over 

 the holes they had formed. On the 24th I again visited the same locality, when I 

 found the females curling themselves up in the flowers of a Hieracium ? the males 

 flying around them. At the same time scores of the males were entering the holes in 

 the foot-path, and occasionally I saw at the entrance a male rolling over with a female 

 in the dust, in the act, I suppose, of copulation. In 1826, when I illustrated this 

 genus in the ' British Entomology,' the species were considered rare; I had, however, 

 found P. ursinus not uncommon on Shooter's Hill, in August, 1819 ; and P. lobatus I 

 detected in abundance at Black Gang Chine, Wallpan Chine, and Ventnor, in the 

 flowers of a hawk-weed, from the end of July to the middle of August, 1826 ; and Mr. 

 Smith also has lately found it in the Isle of Wight. 



" I regret that I could not, from the hardness of the foot-path and for want of a 

 proper instrument, investigate the burrows, apparently formed by these bees, and I am 

 quite unacquainted with their metamorphoses.'' 



Small Lepidoptera of the Amazon. 

 The Secretary read the following extract from a letter addressed to him by Mr. T. 

 J. Stevens of Bogota : — " Respecting small Lepidoptera, there are a great many in 

 this hot country, at least nocturnal ones, for as soon as the candles are lighted they 

 enter into the houses ; but in most parts the mosquitoes enter at the same time, and 

 it would require a thorough-bred entomologist to collect moths under their auspices." 



Papers read. 

 The following papers were read : — " Descriptions of some new Species of Butter- 

 flies from South America ;" by W. C. Hewitson, Esq. The first part of a "Monograph 

 of the Chrysomelidae of Australia;" by J. S. Baly, Esq. "Some Observations on the 

 Excrement of Insects, in a letter addressed to William Spence, Esq., F.R. S., &c. ;" 

 by John Davy, M.D., F. R.S., Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. In this papei 4 

 the author records the result of many investigations into the chemical constituents of 

 the excrement of insects of several Orders, both in the larva and adult states, remark- 

 ing upon the importance of the subject with reference to the vast number and diffu- 

 sion of insects, and the effect their excrement, consisting as it does of matter most 

 powerfully stimulant to vegetable life, must have in the economy of Nature. 



New Part of ' Transactions of the Entomological Society.' 

 A new part of the ' Transactions ' was announced as ready for distribution. — /. W. D. 



Royal Society of Edinddegh. 



December, 1853. — Sir Thomas Brisbane, President, in the chair. 



There was a large attendance of scientific men— most of the Professors of the Uni- 

 versity, and others deyotcd to the study of physical science in Edinburgh, being pre- 

 sent. The following papers were read : — 



