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Species of Bovine Animals. 



Mr. Westwood exhibited a mass of the empty cocoons of Ilythia sociella, for- 

 warded to him by Professor Harvey, of Dublin, of which the Irish naturalists had 

 failed in determining the nature, which had been taken from the stomach of a cow. 

 The only explanation which he could give of so unusual a situation was, that, as the 

 social caterpillars of these species frequent the nests of humble bees in considerable 

 numbers, it was probable that the cow, whilst grazing, had come upon the nest of a 

 moss-carder Bombus, and had chewed it together with the grass, the stomach not 

 having had the power to dissolve the mass of cocoons. Mr. Bond confirmed this 

 opinion, having found the mass of cocoons of the Ilythia in the nest of the moss- 

 carder bee. 



Mr. Westwood had observed, last season, some elm trees near Oxford, which were 

 infested by the Scolytus destructor in the heat of the summer, exuded sap, and 

 attracted large quantities of insects. One of these, this season, has died off, still 

 emitting small patches of extravasated sap : this had attracted vast quantities of 

 Cetonia aurata, the tree from the base of the trunk to the topmost branch being 

 covered by hundreds of specimens, in clusters of a dozen or score together, producing 

 shining masses visible at some distance, and which had attracted Mr. Westwood's 

 attention to the insects. Many had become so stupified from the fluid they had 

 imbibed that they had fallen down helplessly to the ground. Their sense of smell 

 must have been extremely acute, and the odour of the sap (in very small quantities in 

 each place) very penetrative and diffusive, in order to have attracted so great an 

 assemblage of beetles. 



Mr. Douglas remarked that an almost imperceptible exudation from the trunks of 

 trees was often caused by the young larva of Cossus ligniperda. 



Mr. Tegetmeier described a practical application of Shirach's discovery re- 

 specting the power of bees to raise a new queen from a neuter or worker grub ; 

 by means of which the contents of old hives can be taken without destroying 

 the bees or sacrificing any brood. The plan consists in driving out the queen, 

 and about half the bees, in the spring, and establishing them as a new swarm, 

 when the bees remaining in the old hive have to rear a new queen from a worker 

 grub. From the time required to accomplish this, it follows that no eggs can be laid 

 for about three weeks ; by this time the workers producing eggs laid by the old queen 

 will have been hatched out, and the cells filled with honey, when the whole of the 

 bees are to be driven out, and the honey, which will be found perfectly free from 

 brood, retained for use. The plan had been very successfully worked at the bee- 

 house of the Apiarian Society, and specimens of the results were submitted to the 

 Meeting.— 2?. S. 



Addendum to the Paper on Bovine Animals : the Cattle of Egypt and Nubia. — " In 

 the upper countries the cattle are of a peculiar and probably distinct species of ox, 

 very much like our own, but with a hump on the back ; and the females are, as milch 

 cows, good for nothing, being always nearly dry; so that we could scarcely ever pro- 

 cure cow's milk, even when meeting with large herds of them, much as we should 

 have preferred it to that of goats. Our common breed or species is also seen in 

 Nubia, &c, but more rarely. In most parts of Egypt, but especially in the lower pro- 



