Insects. 



6389 



a Live if it be musty or dirty, and I have known many desert if there is any 

 tarred twine carelessly used (too often the case) inside in binding straw-hives ; this is 

 always fatal, they will never stop. As I am on the subject of bees, I regret to see a 

 most intelligent writer, in other respects, endeavouring to establish a new theory as to 

 the formation of the cells of the workers. All the best authorities for the last 

 hundred years have clearly proved that these cells are hexagonal ; there is no other 

 form which affords such economy of space, and nothing, in my humble opinion, dis- 

 plays more of that "Partem Diviuae mentis" (Virgil) in these wonderful insects, the 

 bees, than in the hexagonal formation of their cells. There is also too much 

 inclination novv-a-days to try apiarian experiments,— the almost total prevention of 

 swarming is carried too far, — for if there be one thing more wonderful than another, 

 it is that particular and extraordinary mode the Great Artificer of the world has 

 ordained to be the manner of increasing their species in throwing off their natural 

 swarms, Sec. — H. W. Newman ; Cheltenham, January 7, 1859. 



[I do not understand Colonel Newman's allusion to the Death's Head s does he 

 not mean the honey moths, the larvae of which do riddle the combs? — Ediuard 

 Newman]. 



Capture of Notiophilus subitriatus in the North of Scotland and in Cumberland. — 

 When at Tain, Ross-shire, in September, 1857, I took all the Notiophili that came in 

 my way, and on examining them to-day 1 find that five of the specimens are, without 

 any doubt, substriatus. They were all taken at the base of the sand-hills, on the sea- 

 shore, down which they appeared to have fallen, in company with hundreds of com- 

 mon Amarae. The wagtails, which were very numerous, seemed quite aware of this 

 natural trap, and if late in making my round I found that they had been earlier 

 risers than myself, and had eaten up the whole catch, leaving their foot-prints as a 

 memorial of their doings, and as a hint to me to get up sooner to-morrow morning. I 

 have a specimen of the same insect taken on the hills in Cumberland, which is of a 

 fine steel-blue colour. The species thus appears to be widely dispersed. — Thomas 

 John Bold ; Long Benton, Newcastle-on-Tyne, December 28, 1858. 



English Habitat for Quedius auricomus. — Amongst my Cumberland captures of the 

 past season is a very beautiful little Quedius, agreeing fully with the description of 

 Q. auricomus, Kiesenw., in 4 Faune Frangaise,' vol. i. 540. I took it beneath debris, 

 on banks of the river Irthing, in May, 1858. This species has not, to my knowledge, 

 been previously found on this side the border. Mr. Hardy records it as occurring in 

 Berwickshire, and has described it with great accuracy under the name of scintillans, 

 in the 4 History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,' vol. ii. 258. Mr. A. Murray, 

 in his 1 Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Scotland,' p. 123, indicates Q. auricomus as 

 "Rare; Berwickshire; near Hamilton." It is also recorded in the 'Entomological 

 Annual' for 1855, p. 123, on the authority of the foregoing Scottish localities. — Id. 



Note on Zo an thus. — The Zoanthus lately noticed in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 

 6349) proves to be identical with Dysidea papillosa, Johnston, — an animal formerly 

 believed to be a sponge ; it is, however, a true compound polype, and a detailed 

 description of it in its proper character has just been laid before the Zoological 



