328 abstracts: paleontology 



termediate between the generalized and specialized forms. The un- 

 usual larva and larval habits, together with adult characters, caused the 

 authors to remove the oryssoids from the suborder Chalastogastra and 

 place them in a new suborder. The paper includes detailed descrip- 

 tions of the larva and pupa of Oryssus occidentalis Cresson and gives 

 diagnostic characters for the new suborder. One unusual feature of the 

 group is the long-exserted ovipositor of the pupa which in the adult 

 becomes concealed within the body, extending anteriorly in an inverted 

 position into the prothorax where it rights itself and follows nearly 

 the same cotuse back to the apex of the abdomen where it is hidden 

 within the sheath. S. A. R. 



ENTOMOLOGY. — A contribution to the biology of North American 

 Diptera. Chas. T. Greene. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 19: 

 146-157, pis. 17-20. 1 918 (issued Sept. 1919). 



This paper contains detailed descriptions of the larvae and pupae of 

 six species of flies, which are rather common in the District of Colum- 

 bia, and includes notes on the habits of the immature stages. Good 

 illustrations by the author accompany the article. S. A. RoHWER. 



PALEONTOLOGY. — Pliocene Foraminifera of the Coastal Plain of the 

 United States. Joseph Augustine Cushman. U. S. Geol. 

 Survey Bull. 676. Pp. 98, 31 plates. 191 8. 



Two Pliocene formations are represented: The Waccamaw forma- 

 tion and the Caloosahatchee marl. Nearly all the species in all the 

 material are identical with those found at the present time along our 

 Atlantic coast, but those from the Waccamaw formation of 

 North and South Carolina and also some of those from Shell Creek, 

 Florida, are much more similar to the material now found north of Cape 

 Hatteras, while the Caloosahatchee River material represents a typically 

 tropical shoal-water fauna such as may be found about southern Florida 

 and in shallow water about the West Indies. 



The species of Foraminifera found in the later Miocene of the Coastal 

 Plain of the eastern United States are described or recorded. An at- 

 tempt has been made to include all records of the Foraminifera reported 

 from the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain from Alabama to New Jersey. 

 The Miocene Foraminifera are not susceptible of so definite a division 

 into faunas as the Pliocene Foraminifera. The species of the Maryland 



