10 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
abundant in the pools early in June, and the gnats left the pupa stage and 
rose from the surface of the pools in the middle of June. A warm calm day 
always brought out considerable swarms of mosquitoes, but the summers 
of both 1882 and 1883 were cold and the mosquitoes were more trouble- 
some. Beetles were collected crawling on the dry sunny spots, and the 
pools in early summer swarmed with small black Podurids resembling 
grains of gunpowder. Peculiar brown carrion-flies, resembling bird-para- 
sites, were very numerous around the dead bodies at the native cemetery. 
Insects were seldom seen flying, but were occasionally to be met with 
along the sunny bank of one lagoon, especially crane-flies, and a few large 
humble-bees. A few moths were hatched from cocoons picked up on the 
tundra, but only one was seen flying in the two seasons we were at the 
station. 
In connection with Mr. Murdoch's communication. Dr. Barnard 
remarked on the food of Poduridae which he had observed feeding 
on the remains of dead clams in Louisiana; Dr. Riley on an in- 
teresting, not yet determined, Dipteron found around the Esqui- 
maux burying-grounds by Mr. Murdoch ; Mr. Schwarz on 
the Coleoptera, and Mr. Marx on the spiders collected by Mr. 
Murdoch. 
Mr. Howard read a communication on the so-called Mistaken 
Parasite, Platygaster error Fitch. He showed how this species 
had been connected with a series of mistakes from the time of its- 
original description, mainly from the fact that the characters given 
by Fitch were not specific. He called attention to the improba- 
bility of the reported observations of Herrick* and Cook on the 
oviposition of this species in the eggs of Cecidomyia destructor, 
and, in closing, exhibited specimens of an allied species of the 
genus Telenomus\)\-edi from eggs of Chrysopa. 
Mr. Schwarz read a paper on the insect fauna of the District 
of Columbia. He calls attention to the complexity of the faunal 
regions of North America as compared with the simplicity of the 
palearctic fauna. As to the fauna of the Atlantic slope, the num- 
ber of subdivisions formerly adopted have been gradually reduced 
to three the boreal fauna, that of the Northern and that of the 
Southern States. The fauna of the District comes, of course, 
very close to the dividing zone between the two last-mentioned 
regions, but must, in his opinion, still be attributed to the Southern 
fauna. The topographical features of the District are exceptionally 
favorable for harboring a very rich insect fauna, and every one who 
has paid any attention to the collecting of insects in the vicinity of 
