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Psyche 3:277-279, 1880.

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PSYCHE.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., 0CT.-DEC. 1881.
-.
Commm/cd;ions, cxchaftgcs and editors' copies sbmdd be addresssd to EDITORS OF PSYCHS, Cam- bridge, Miss. Cmmunicfftn?nn for puHimfiffft in PSYCHE must be properly auihmticcifed, and no away- mous articles will be pubHsked.
Editors and cofttfibitiors are onty respsnsibiu for the statements made in their own comm~tfiTcations. Worh on sft~fs not related to enlowology will not 6e reviewed in PSYCHE.
For rates of subfcrifitfon and of aifverttstfyr, see advertising columns.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
(C07itmwcdfhfm p. 2f5.)
i I FEB. 1881 .-74th meeting (conftnited). Mr. W : Trelease described hie observations of the manner in which' a male and female Cicada approached each other. The male
remained stationary until the female, attrac- ted by his stridulation, fiew to him and alighted in a position facing him. The male then walked past the female until the two were back to back. Mr. S : H. Scudder said that prior to the copulation of the sexes of Argymzis atlantis, the male follows the fe- male haif way in her rear, so that the bodies of the two overlap side by side. The female, in moving, makes a quick &tart forward for a few steps ; then the male does the same. Mr. Trelease recorded the capture of Au- thtdi~m cogm-twm in Maryland, near the
Potomac River. This species had not hith- erto been observed north of Georgia. He
then gave an account of his observations on the number of times in succession that Ves$a macwlata can give a poisonous sting. He
hired a negro boy to allow himself to be stung at ten cents a sting. Taking the wasp between his fingers, Mr. T. pressed her first upon the back of the boy's left hand, then upon the right arm, then upon the lower lobe of the right ear, and then upon the left ear. In each case the wasp inflicted it poisonous sting so that the wound became swollen; and as the powers of neither the waep or the boy seemed to diminish as rapidly as the contents of the experimenter's purse, the experiment was discontinued. In Mr. T.'s opinion the sting is not stiff enough to pierce the skin of the inside of the finger tip, so that the wasp may be picked iip with impunity. Mr. G:
ML Dimmock $aid he had observed in a sim- ilar case that a second puncture with a. wasp's sting did not cause so much swelling as the first. Mr. Trelease said that the sting of Sfisus was not nearly 80 severe as that of a bee,
Mr. S: H. Scudder exhibited a cast of the first paleozoic insect ever found. This was found at Coalbrookdale,
Eng., about 1833,
and was described by Audouin as Corydalis bro~gniarfii. It wasstudiedanewby Swinton, who called it Gvyllacris. ,
11 MAR. iS8i.+sth meeting. Prof, J : H : Cornstock exhibited drawings and photc-
graphs of drawings intended to be used in illustration of the forthcoming report of the Entomologist of the U. S. Department of
agriculture, upon the insects injurious to the orange, and particularly upon the coccidae. He also gave an account of the work of his division, and the plans and principles on which he carried it on.
Mr. S: H. Scudder exhibited a copy of a
recent work by Dr. Jousset de Bellesme on the functions of the balancer or haltere in diptera, and gave some account of the con- tents of the work. He also exhibited a proof sheet of one of the plates in the forthcoming numero of Edwards' Butterflies of North
America, illustrating the varieties of Satyrus ah&, and communicated the request, in
behalf of Mr. Edwards, that any person hav- ing remarkable varieties of this species would send specimens immediately to Mr. Edwards. so that he might figure them. The next
plate to which Mr. E. will devote his atten- tion is that of Satyrus nefikele.
Mr. Scudder spoke of his experiences in
finding museum pests (Afifkreuus varks) in old boxes which hnd not been used for many years, and had been cleaned freqaentiy. This



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called out mentions of si tniiar experiences from Dr. H. A. Hagen and others. Mr. B:
P. Mann said that he had no apprehension of being unable to free any infested colkction from pests. It is necessary, however, to de- vote frequent attention to the collections. 8 APR. 1881. - 76th meeting. Mr. S : H.
Scudder exhibited proofs of nearly twenty plates of engravings of fossil insects, pre- pared for one of the fortlicoming volumes of Hayden's Geological and geographical
survey of the territories. Nearly nil the original drawings were made by Mr. J. H. Blake, and the lithographing was ali done in Sinclair's establishment at Philadelphia. AH but the first ten plates represented fossils from Florissant. Mr. Scudder stated some of the preliminary concliis-ioiis, in regard to the venation of the wings, to which he had arrived, as a result of his study of fossil insects.
13 MAY 1881.-77th meeting. Mr. S : H.
Scuckier exhibited plates containing figures of fossil species of Termes, and remarked upon the structural features of the species. A coinrnunicntion was read, from the
Middlesex Institute, of Maiden, Mass., an- noundiig the formation and organization of the Institute. Mr. E : P. Austin gave notice of nn expedition which he was about to make in Arizona and adjacent regions, primaril$ on business, but collaterally with attention to the insects to be found.
Mr. S: !A. Scudder called attention to n paper on the Westphalian species of Donacia, in the Jahrefibericht der zooiogischen Section des westf&lSschen Provinzial-Vereiiis f~ir Wissenschaft and Kunst, for 1875.
14 OCT. 1881.-78th meeting. Mr. W : Tre- lease was elected acting secretary for the re- mainder of the year, in the absence of Mr. B: P. Mann.
Mr. S: H. Scudder spoke of a series of
articles by himself, which was to be pub- lished in PSYCHE, on the anatomy of the im- mature stages of butterflies, mentioning some particulars of larval structure which confirm the growing belief, drawn horn the study of the imago, that the swallow-tails [pajilio- ni'dae] should be placed near the bottom of the scale in cliissification, near the skippers {fiesfendue], instead of at the head, where Linnaeus placed them. Remarks by Dr. E : L. Mark led to n discussion of severs! struc- tural peculiarities of lepidoptera, especially of organs found by Mr. Scudder near the anus of the female pupa of Dimah, and not men- tioned by Mr. E: Burgess in his Anatomy
of Baa& areh'pjus; these organs recall the odoriferous organs mentioned by Burnett in his translation of Sieboid's Compnrative anatomy, as occurring in Argy~nif and other genera.
A question by Mr. F: Gardiner, jr., led to remarks by Dr. E : L. Mark on the defensive organs of Braehi~its and other insects.
Dr. E : L. Mark spoke of the value of the Isrvne of Caretha for demonstrations of the anatomy of insects, owing to their great transparency. An incidental advantage men- tioned is the existence of a very extensive ,
literature upon the subject.
Mr. S : H. Scudder read a letter from Prof. J : H : Cornstock concerning an aquatic lepi- dopterous lnrsa, belonging to the genus
Arzama. This larva has been found in New ' York and in Florida; it lives in the petiole of the pond-lily [Nym/Aaw odorat(t], and is able to remain under the water tor a half-hour or longer.
Mr. W : Tidense showed an undescribed
Cfiioaasfis, found on Spartiria stricta, at Wood's Holl, Mas6. These insects were said to thrire on plants partly mbinerged in salt water at every high tide, nnd when collected were wet with salt spray I The coccid had been referred to Prof. J : H : Coinstock. Mr. S : H. Scudder showed larvae of Sck- ra, which had been sent from &ti&, Mass., by Mr. W: Edwards. They unite in some -
way and form a compact body twelve to fifteen decimeters iong, and as large as a man's thumb. They move slowly in a snake-like
manner. When an attempt is made to lift
the chainit breaks, but it reunites if the ends are placed together.




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PSYCHE. -279 -
Mr. S : 14. Scudder showed two larvae of ingrelations with the iimber fauna of Europe. A$atwa from Florida, calling attention to 9 DEC. 1881. -80th meeting. Dr. H. A. their relative position in hibernation, and Hagen read a paper on amber $socisa from remarking on their habits.
Prussia.
No fossit Rcor~~.c, save those from
I I Nov. 1881. - 79th meeting. Mr. W : amber, are known. After stating the general , Trelease showed a specimen of ant-arehitec- results of his study. Dr. Haen concluded tura from Wood's Holl, mas^. A ernall that the amber forms gave reason to believe colony of Crematogasier liaeolata Say, $ , that before the tertiary times a great develop- Mr. W: Treleas
of the white-grub
nrr~bik! and reni
tiveness of the gru
stralian ant, allied to camjhmdus, remark- nimated honey-bag.
In this it was analo-
Mr. S: H. Scud
e reasons for the abse
XE I%.-. . . Mr. Finis! exhibited (on
of Mr. Lowrev) an example of arctia
tosu, in which one antenna was congen-
beds of Florissant. Col.. and stated the gen- torn. mo. mag^ July 1880. v. 17, p. 48.
era1 results he had arrived at from their 6 OCT. i8So.-. . , Mr. A. H. Swinton read study.
The number of species was greater
two papers on the effects of food in producing than in all the stratified tertiary beds of En- variability in lepidoptera, more especially . .+ . .,
3 -..:LL . - -"-A &.. " -,-.,. ."-" *..A --,A,. -A new genera, one of qkiridue, tile other ail abnormal form of atfidae, with four instead of two large eyes. The epciridae included . ... ".
affinity to those now living in the southern caju. - Etztom. mu. wag., Dec. 1880, v. 17, United States-a Tetragvatha and a Nefhita p. 167.
were present. besides several species of two 2 MAR. ~881.- . . . Mr. [E. A,] Fitch read a detailed report frh the "Western daily mercury" on the discovery of living Colorado- beetles in possession of a man near Plymouth, , nearly haif <it tne total number of species, with editorial leaders on the legal proceeding^ There WEIE indication of somewhat interest- taken against that individual.




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