Entomological Society. 



6655 



comb, was got out of a bank at Cheam, and safely transferred to the 

 glass case. By the time that the nest had been slung, and a large 

 piece cut away so as to display the inside of the nest, the swarm was 

 reduced to three, namely, two workers and one queen. However, they 

 soon began to multiply, and before long I could count as many as 

 sixty at once, a large number of them being drones, which appear to 

 be hatched at a later period by this species than by V. britannica. 



But wasps in confinement are very dull and tame compared with 

 wasps in a wild state. They lingered on till the end of January, 

 when the last survivor died ; but they never made any paper ; they 

 merely vegetated. They seemed always made comfortable by having 

 the glass case in which they lived washed out, and never molested me 

 in doing this, though the process was repeated almost daily for several 

 weeks. 



I thought that they knew me ; perhaps it was that I knew them, 

 and was very careful never to shake the nest in my operations ; for, 

 gentle as they seemed at other times, even allowing me to handle 

 them, the true waspish spirit came out on one occasion, when the nest 

 had been accidentally displaced from its fastenings by a fall. They 

 were so furious against the wire with which I was replacing it, that I 

 was very glad that the glass had not been broken by the fall, and my 

 angry pets turned loose into the room to find me occupation for a 

 long winter evening in catching sixty wasps. 



E. L. Ormerod. 



Proceedings of Societies. 

 Entomological Society. 

 July 4, 1859. — Dr. Gray, President, in the chair. 



Donations. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 

 donors : — ' Proceedings of the Royal Society,' Vol. ix. No. 34 ; presented by the 

 Society. ' Farm' Insects ; being the Natural History and Economy of the Insects 

 injurious to the Field-crops of Great Britain and Ireland, and also those which infest 

 Barns and Granaries ; with suggestions for their destruction.' By John Curtis, F.L.S., 

 Sec. Part I. ; by the Author. ' The Zoologist ' for July ; by the Editor. ' A Manual 

 of British Butterflies and Moths,' No. 33 ; * The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer,' 

 Nos. 141 to 144; by H. T. Stainton, Esq. 'The Athenaeum' for June; by the Editor. 

 'The Journal of the Society of Arts' for June; by the Society. 'The Literary 

 Gazette' for June; by the Editor. 'Exotic Butterflies,' Parts 30 and 31 ; by W. W. 

 Saunders, Esq. 



