6468 



Insects. 



times together, at last he sctteth upon their combes, devouring all that 

 he can finde. And thus much for the History of the Wasp." 



Frederick Smith. 



Bees roosting by the Mandibular Process. — Mr. Kearley and M. Guenzius seem 

 both to claim the right of patenting this process, but if priority goes for anything, I 

 have the means of showing that it was very familiar to me as far back as the year 

 1832, and that by availing myself of this secret I obtained large supplies of two little 

 bees, Nomada furva and N. borealis, previously unknown to our apiarians, who were 

 very glad to welcome the little strangers when I had the pleasure of introducing 

 them. When I first beheld the process in operation I was at Leominster, in company 

 with my lamented friend Edward Doubleday, whose extended reading de re entomo- 

 logica had previously apprised him of a similar fact; and, ever ready with references, 

 he gave me chapter and verse, which, sorrowful to say, I have forgotten; still he was 

 delighted with this ocular demonstration, and remarked, as the fragile grasses gave way 

 in his attempts to withdraw them from the grip of the bees' canines, that they, the 

 bees, were tenax propositi. Since that period scarcely a year has past but I have seen 

 bees in a similar situation, and never unaccompanied by a pleasant reminiscence of 

 the delightful excursion during which I first observed this episode in the wild bee's 

 life. When long grass, in " the sear and yellow," hangs over a sandy bee-bank, you 

 may make sure of finding the self-suspended bees attached to the blades on a rainy or 

 cloudy day, or, better still, at early dawn, when the sun with slanting ray gives 

 abundant light but little warmth. — Edward Newman. 



Note on Xylocopa nigrita, Fabr. — In the fourth volume of the ' Zoologist' 

 (Zool. 1446) will be found some remarks on the habits of Chelostoma florisomne, as 

 detailed in the first volume of the 1 Entomological Magazine :' the observations appear 

 to have been partly based upon Keaumur's history (theory ?) of the development of Xy- 

 locopa violacea. At p. 160 of my ' Monograph of the Bees of Great Britain,' the fol- 

 lowing observations occur: — "I will take this opportunity of correcting a very widely 

 diffused error, which appears to have originated with Reaumur, as, if his account of the 

 development of Xylocopa violacea be correct, it differs from that of every wood-boring 

 bee which inhabits this country: he says, 'When the larva assumes the pupa, it is 

 placed in its cell with its head downwards, a very wise precaution, for thus it is pre- 

 vented, when it has attained to its perfect state, and is eager to emerge into day, from 

 making its way out upwards and disturbing the tenants of the superincumbent cells, 

 who, being of later date each than its neighbour below stairs, are not yet quite ready 

 to go into public' Having bred, at various times, nearly all the wood-boring bees 

 which inhabit this country, and having always observed their development to be in 

 the very reverse order to that laid down by the great French naturalist, I have been 

 led to adopt an opinion that Reaumur's account of the bees emerging as he states was 

 conjectural; I could not, judging from the results of my own observations, believe his 

 history to be entirely founded on facts. Still I could not, never having observed the 

 development of a species of Xylocopa, speak positively on the subject, and therefore 

 observed that if such was its history it was at variance with every observation which I 

 had made on the development of wood-boring bees." I adduced one or two examples 

 in support of my opinions, showing instances in which the escape of the bee inhabiting 



