. 50 General Notes. [ January, 
‘or sinaless. Brazilian honey bees) licked eagerly the juice drop- 
ping from pieces of flesh which had been suspended in order to 
be dried in the open air. Nothing else as far as I know has ever 
been published on the carnivorous habits of bees; I hope, there- 
fore you will soon publish your very interesting observations.” 
We have also received the following letter from Mr. Darwin, 
dated Down, Beckenham, Kent, Nov. 23d. ‘I never heard of 
bees being in any way carnivorous, and the fact is to me incredi- 
ble. Is it possible that the bees opened the bodies of the Plusia 
to suck the nectar contained in their stomachs? Such a degree 
of reason would require repeated confirmation and would be very 
wonderful. I hope that you or some one will attend to the sub- 
ject" 
We have also received the following note from Prof. Gray in 
reference to the subject: “It has long been familiar, and must 
several times have been recorded, that moths or butterflies and 
other insects are caught by getting their tongue, proboscis or legs 
into the chink between adjacent wings of the anthers in Piysianthus 
or Arauja albens, and Asclepias, etc. The anther-wings are very 
rigid, the groove between them narrows gradually upwards, so 
that when a leg or proboscis is engaged, an upward pull only fixes 
it more securely, and the unhappy insects seem rarely to pull 
backward or downward, which is the only way to get disengaged. 
As to the rest of your account I know nothing; and should say 
that the observations need, if not ‘repeated confirmation, at 
least some confirmation by an entomological observer. 
t appears from the fact that the single worker bee received 
had a pollen-mass attached to one of its fore legs, that it visited 
the plant originally for the sake of its nectar. For what purpose 
did it attack, kill the moths and, as is claimed, “ devour” them? 
We publish the observations of Mr. Thompson and the comments 
upon them, with the hope that the subject will receive attention 
next summer. 
Since this note has been put in type, Prof. A. J. Cook, of the 
Agricultural College of Michigan, well known as an apiarian of 
experience, informs us that within the hive, honey bee workers in 
killing the drones tear them in pieces with their mandibles rather 
than sting them, and that he has seen them thus kill a humble 
bee that had entered the hive; it thus appears, what we judge will 
be quite new to entomologists, that the honey bee uses its mandi- . 
bles, at least on some occasions, as weapons of attack, quite as 
much as the sting; this would also corroborate the exactness of 
Mr. Thompson's observations.—A. S. Packard, Fr. 
PROF. HEeR ON SEquoia.—At the recent meeting of the Hel- 
vetic Society.of Natural Sciences, Professor Heer read a paper in 
the Botanical section, on the palzeontological history of Seguora. 
This genus is now represented by only two distinct species, form- 
ing the e celebrated forests of i trees in California, and known to 
