6216 



Insects. 



After I got up tlicy did not swarm any longer about the spot where I had been 

 lying: they flew so close about me that I could hardly net them without hilling my 

 face and head, and when I had boxed some of them in tin boxes, and laid ihem on the 

 ground, other specimens flew about them, and seemed to be trying to get into the 

 boxes.— C. G. Barrptt, 37, Park Street, Mile End ; June 26, 1858.— /c/. 



Phibalapteryx fluviata and P. gemmaria : are they distinct F — I took, on the 9th 

 inst., a male specimen of this insect : it therefore appears to be double-brooded as well 

 as gemmaria. It seems very peculiar that all the specimens of fluviata that have 

 been taken in England, as far as I am aware, are males, aud all the specimens of 

 gemmaria females. I should be glad to hear if any one has met with female speci- 

 mens of fluviata or male specimens of gemmaria. Or are the two species only one, 

 and the diff'erence in the markings only sexual i* — G. Harding, jan,, Stapleton, near 

 Bristol; June 28, 1858.— i^^. 



[The occurrence of these two rare insects in company near London, and the exam- 

 ination of many recent London specimens, the males being invariably fluviata and 

 the females gemmaria, led rae to suspect the identity of the two some weeks since* 

 —E, iV.] 



Retrospective Criticism on Dr. Grays vieiv of the Cause of the Cells of the Honey 

 Bee being of an hexagonal form, — In the Proceedings of the Entomological Society 

 (Zool. 6189) there is a report of a discussion on the shape of the cells of the bee, in 

 which the following sentence occurs : — " Dr. Gray contended that the hexagonal form 

 was undoubtedly the result of lateral pressure : if cylinders composed of any yielding 

 substance (vermicelli for instance) were placed side by side and subjected to such 

 pressure, they were invariably forced into the hexagonal form. He considered ihe 

 attempt made by natural theologians, to prove that the formation of a hexagonal 

 rather than a cylindrical cell indicated the possession of a greater degree of Divine 

 wisdom bestowed upon the insect, was the greatest piece uf humbug they had ever 

 brought forward." I leave the matter of fact to those who have studied the subject, 

 merely remarking that the position seems to me perfectly untenable ; but the closing 

 sentence broaches a much wider and more important subject. I have always under- 

 stood and believed that all natural theologians agreed in describing instinct to be that 

 power imparted to all animals by their Creator, by which they do, without thought or 

 reasoning, everything which in the ordinary course of nature they have to do, in the 

 best possible manner ; and that all naturalists are equally agreed that this power is 

 evident in the actions of every wild animal and insect. If, then, the hexagonal is the 

 best form for the cells of the bee, that ihey should make them of that form is just 

 what we might have expected from the analogy of all animated nature. Dr. Gray 

 does not say where the lateral pressure comes from ; but if it is given by the bees them- 

 selves, or arises from some cause which might have been calculated upon, the question 

 of instinct remains untouched ; but if the pressure is accidental, it seems to me that 

 the supposition that bees make cells of one form, and then leave them to be changed 

 into another and a better one, by something which may or may not happen, is quite 

 inadmissible. — Thomas Boyd ; 17, Clapton Square, August 6, 1858. 



Beetles at Home. — In the lrt)nt of this house, so graphically described in Newman's 

 ' Insect Hunters,' there is a small bricked area, and the aspect being north it is 

 usually somewhat damp, and the resort of sundry Onisci. Here they might lead 

 quiet and sequestered lives as becomes such retiring animals, but it is no happy 

 valley for them, for by accident or design certain filibustering Carabidae drop down 



