THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 26, 1858. 
51 
was read, giving an account of the habits of a small Beetle, 
allied to Scarites, which inhabits the nests of the white ants 
( Termitidce ). 
The last two meetings of the Entomological Society have (as 
might reasonably have been expected, from the great activity now 
manifested among collectors, and the peculiarly favourable cha¬ 
racter of the past summer) been especially distinguished by the 
announcement of the captures of a considerable number of very 
rare species, and many even entirely unknown previously, as 
natives of these islands. Not only have Ireland, Wales, and the 
middle districts of Scotland been explored, but the more remote 
regions of Cornwall and Shetland; and some important results 
in a geographico-zoological point of view have been obtained. 
Thus, whilst species have been captured in the extreme south¬ 
west of England, hitherto only known as natives of Corsica and 
Maderia, the Shetland Islands have produced species quite boreal 
in their range. Some interesting facts and discussions connected 
with the economy of the hive have also been communicated to, 
and taken place at, these two meetings of the Society. 
The chair at the September meeting w T as taken by Dr. J. E. 
Gray, E.R.S., President of the Society. Amongst the donations 
announced as having been received since the last meeting, were— 
1 he publications of the Stettin Entomological Society, the Royal 
Agricultural Society, the Zoological and Linnoean Societies, and 
the Society of Arts. 
A number of Coleopterous insects, collected in Shetland, near 
Lerwick, by Mr. Squire, were exhibited. Of these, as many as 1 
seven wore species presumed to be entirely new to the British i 
fauna, including Kelobia nivalis , Patrohus Lapponicvs, and new r I 
species of ITydroporus, Agabus, and Omalium. 
Dr. Power also exhibited various rare Coleoptera, from Preston ! 
Marsh, Lancashire. Amongst these was a remarkable monstrous 
specimen of Pembidium concinnum, one of the legs of which was 
furnished with two perfect, and half of another imperfect tarsi. 
Another beautiful Beetle, new to this country, the Tilloidea 
unifasciata, was exhibited by the Rev. Hamlet Clark, having been 
forwarded alive to Dr. Baly, from Malvern. 
Mr. Samuel Stevens exhibited a specimen of the very rare 
Pieris dapUdice, taken at the South Foreland. lie also exhibited 
various interesting Coleoptera, collected by Mr. Shield, at Monte 
Video, amongst which he especially noticed a species of Claviger, 
which had been found in an ant’s nest, thus proving that the 
habits of the family, as observed in our northern climates, were 
also possessed by their brethren in the tropics. 
Mr. Douglas exhibited various Coleoptera, taken at Seaford, in 
Sussex. Amongst them were four species of Ilctcrocerus, and a 
species of Bryaxis, apparently new, found in mud, under stones, in 
a saltmarsh. 
Mr. MacLachlan exhibited Acrobati ( rufo-iilielhi ), taken at the 
end of July, at Forest ITill. 
Mr. Frederick Bond also exhibited a very fine series of the 
perfect Moth, reared from the Jumping Seeds, from Mexico, 
which excited so much interest during tire last winter. The 
moths had been described by Mr. Westwood, under the name of 
Carpocapsa saltitans. 
Mr. Waring exhibited a remarkably pale variety of the Moth, 
Pcecilo campapopuli. 
Mr. Adam IV bite exhibited a curious flattened pupa case, 
received from China, from one end of which a Beetle, belonging 
to the family Atopidse, was in the act of making its escape. 
He also directed attention to the remarkable apparatus possessed 
by the females of the allied genus Cebrio, for fastening particles 
of earth together for forming their cocoons, and also alluded to 
the remarkable larva of the North American genus, Eurypalpus, 
which had been described by Dr. Kay as a erustaceous animal. 
A list of insects collected by Mr. Nicoley, at St. Salvador, was 
read. 
Mr. Tcgetmeier communicated to the Society an observation 
ho had recently made on the economy of the hive bee, having 
noticed that bees, at the entrance of a hive, had eaten small pieces 
of pollen, dropped from the legs of the worker bees. He had also 
placed two swarms in an observer hive, and had noticed that 
pollen was carried in within a few days before there could have 
been any young grubs to have fed upon it. He also mentioned 
an experiment lie had made with a view to determine the true 
primary form of the cells of the comb, which, although ordinarily 
of a hexagonal form, there were good grounds for considering to be 
primarily planned of a cylindrical shape. With this view he had 
placed a mass of solid wax in a hive, and he had observed, that 
the bees had excavated cells in it, all of which were of a cylindrical 
shape, with hemispherical bottoms. They were all, it is true, in* 
dependent of each other, and he had no doubt, that, when the 
intervening spaces were excavated, the bees would alter the shape 
of the cells, and the intervening wax would become flattened. He 
advised that experiments should be tried with wax, coloured with 
some vegetable fluid, in order to show how the bees modified the 
shape of the cells, when adjacent cells were added. 
Mr. F. Smith contended, that the hexagonal theory was proved 
by the proceedings of wasps, as well as by social bees. He could 
affirm, that not a single species of wasp forms a cylindrical cell. 
In the common wasp the base of the cell was circular; but in the 
South American polybra it was flat at the base, although hex¬ 
agonal in the cell. He also exhibited the comb from the nest of 
another wasp, in which the outside of the outer series of cells was 
hexagonal, contrary to the circumstance relied upon by Mr. 
Tegetmeier, that the outer cells in the honeycomb are always 
circular on the outside. 
Mr. Brayley stated, that the opinion that the cells of bees owed 
then’ hexagonal form to the contiguity and pressure of the adja¬ 
cent cells was not a new one, having been maintained fifty years 
ago by Mr. Wollaston, in Davy’s “Agricultural Chemistry.” 
FRUIT and FRUIT TREES of GREAT BRITAIN. 
(Continued from page 38.) 
No. XL— Betjrre Superfin Pear. 
When this excellent Pear was introduced to notice by the 
Pomological Society, and recommended to the notice of English 
fruit growers, an attempt was made by M. De Jonghe, of Brussels, 
to show that it was not a variety of such excellence as the Society 
represented it to be, and that it was merely the old and inferior 
Cumberland Pear, with a new name. I showed then, that this 
was not the case, and that M. De Jonghe not only laboured under 
a complete ignorance of the history of the Cumberland Pear, but 
that he was, according to his own showing, evidently cultivating 
a variety which was not the true Peurre Superfin. 
The trials of subsequent seasons have proved, that Peurre 
Superfin is all that it was represented to be,—one of the very 
best autumn Pears. It is not one of those richly luscious Pears, 
with a high musky aroma, like the Seckle for instance, or Oansel's 
Pergamot, but possesses that brisk, lively, and piquant flavour, 
