16 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



painstaking manner, shewing each separate piece of leaf used in their for- 

 mations, also a specimen of the pupa, a large number of living parasites 

 fonnd in one of the cells, a series of the perfect insect, together with speci- 

 mens of other species of the same genus, and one of the finest specimens of a 

 set of cells that can well be imagined. This was formed in a rotten branch 

 of a plum tree and consisted of various sets of cells leading towards the 

 various openings in the bark, and extending in both an upward and down- 

 ward direction • in one row there were were no less than nineteen cells and 

 in another fifteen. Mr. Hillman, speaking after the paper had been read, 

 said that he had observed them in an old wall forming their cells in the 

 chinks between the bricks, so that he thought they would go wherever they 

 found a suitable cavity, but he did not believe that they excavated galleries 

 for themselves either in rotten wood or elsewhere, and the specimens exhibited 

 by Mr. Clark were, in his opinion, formed in the old burrows of some wood- 

 boring larvae. Mr. Anderson commented on the fact of the cells being 

 closelv packed one behind another, and thought it curious that the insect 

 produced from the last egg laid must arrive at maturity and emerge first, as 

 otherwise the other bees could not get out. Mr. Clark said that as he hoped 

 to rear the bees from the cells exhibited, he expected at a future meeting to be 

 able to give some reliable information respecting the mode of emergence. A 

 very animated discussion on this species was continued for some time. 



The President made some remarks in reference to the sale of an egg of the 

 Great Auk for 160 guineas. In the course of conversation on this subject, 

 it was mentioned that five eggs of this species are in the Natural History 

 Museum, though some of them are damaged. It was announced at the close 

 of the meeting that papers would be read at each meeting in January and 

 also the first meeting in February.— -J. Russell and E. Andukson, Hon. 

 Secretaries. 



SOUTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY 



SOCIETY. 



November %Ul> 1887.— -R. Adkin, Esq., E.E.S., President, in the chair. 

 Messrs. J. Reindorp and W. H. Wiffen were elected members. Mr. Adye 

 exhibited Sphinx convolvuli, Catacala promissa, C. sponsa, Xylina 

 rkizolitka, X. setnibrunnea, and X. petrificata from the New Forest. 

 Mr. Merr, species taken on Wanstead Plats. Mr. E. A. Briggs, a fine 

 variety of Arctia caja. Mr. Billups, a cocoon of a South American moth, 

 the pupa being about the size of Chcerocampa porcellus, from which 139 

 perfect and 19 immature specimens, and 9 larvae of a parasite of the 

 genus Smicra had emerged, Mr. Billups also exhibited, on behalf of Mr. 



