8496 > Insects. 



Hexagonal Cells. — I would also mention a paper by Mr. Edwin Brown (Zool. 8009) 

 " On the Plan upon which Bees and Wasps construct their Cells." The theory here 

 announced is, if I mistake not, that propounded by Mr. Waterhouse in the ' Penny 

 Cyclopaedia,' not less, I believe, than twenty-five years ago. I will not trespass on 

 your patience by reiterating my own views of this theory, having done so in various 

 communications to this Society long ago, but I will call attention to one or two points. 

 Mr. Brown says, " Every cell during its progress is impinged upon by six other cells, 

 and, as all progress at the same time, produce inevitably the hexagonal structure." 

 In order to prove that it is not necessary that a cell should be impinged upon by six 

 others, I will refer Mr. Brown to the sixth plate that illustrates my ' Catalogue of the 

 Vespidse,' in which a faithful representation of a nest of Icaria guttatipennis is figured, 

 showing six hexagonal cells standing in a row on the branch of a shrub. Again it is 

 stated " It is only when another line of cells is in process of erection that the cells in 

 the outer ring assume a hexagonal shape." This is true, but I possess portions of 

 wasps' combs, or rather the beginnings of combs, in which perhaps twenty are com- 

 pleted, others being only just commenced at their base ; the rest are carried up to their 

 full height ; but had the parent wasp or wasps, as the case might be, not intended to 

 have extended the comb beyond that limit I am fully assured the outer walls would 

 not have been carried up in angular planes of a hexagon, for in that case the form 

 ' of the outer portion of the cells would be semicircular. But wasps not only build 

 hexagonal cells, but sometimes, as is the case with a South-American species, Apoica 

 pallida, they occasionally construct hexagonal combs. Beautiful examples of this 

 form may be seen in the nest room at the British Museum. — Frederick Smith in Anni- 

 versary Address. 



New Insect at the Friends' Institute. — In our London houses two species of insects 

 may be said to swarm ; these are the cockroach and the cricket. Every one knows an 

 infallible cure for these pests, just as every one knows an infallible cure for whooping- 

 cough and lumbago ; every one recommends the cure to his afflicted neighbour, but 

 every human body continues subject to the two complaints, and every human habit- 

 ation shelters the two obnoxious fellow-lodgers. The third fellow-lodger, which I 

 propose to call Lepismodes inquilinus, and to which I can give no English name, is 

 confined, so far as my knowledge extends, to the building known as the Friends' 

 Institute, 12, Bishopsgate Street Without. Its body is half an inch long, and it has 

 antennae and tails each half an inch long or rather more, so that the entire length is 

 rather more than an inch and a half. Like a judicious epicure it prefers the dining 

 room to every other apartment in the house, and, like an experienced pilferer, its ram- 

 bles are entirely nocturnal, concealing itself behind the wainscot by day, and wandering 

 about by night in search of provisions, as sugar, crumbs and other comestibles. It 

 seems to find no very secure footing on the varnished surface of the wainscoting, and 

 this physical infirmity led to its detection; for whilst perambulating the treacherous 

 varnish, it frequently lost its hold and was precipitated headlong into cups, saucers, 

 sugar-basins or slop-basins, and once in, its infirmity of" poor " or nonprehensile feet 

 effectually precluded its escape. The various household utensils which I have men- 

 tioned are now used as snares, and the numbers of our fellow-lodgers are thus thinned 

 night after night. — Edward Newman. 



