; 



PROCEEDINGS. 



JANUARY 2, 1896. 



President Ash me ad in the chair and the following members 

 also present : Messrs. Schwarz, Benton, Heidemann, Marlatt, 

 *t*ratt, Hubbard, Howard, Gill, Sudworth, Stiles, and Waite. 



The election of officers for 1896 resulted as follows : Presi 

 dent, C. L. Marlatt; vice-presidents, Theodore Gill and H. G. 

 Hubbard ; recording secretary, L. O. Howard ; corresponding 

 secretary, Frank Benton ; treasurer, E. A. Schwarz ; additional 

 members executive committee, W. H. Ashmead, D. W. Coquil- 

 lett, C. W. Stiles. At the conclusion of the election President 

 elect Marlatt took the chiir and acknowledged in a few remarks 

 the honor done him. 



Mr. Schwarz presented the following paper : 



SEMI-TROPICAL TEXAS. 

 By E. A. SCHWARZ. 



In the year 1879 I had an opportunity of becoming acquainted 

 with the insect fauna of the vicinity of Columbus, Texas, on the 

 lower Colorado River. The fauna at this point, both of the 

 densely wooded river valley as well as of the adjoining more 

 elevated prairies, is but little modified from the austroriparian 

 fauna of Louisiana. West of the Guadalupe River a change in 

 the character of flora and fauna gradually takes place, owing to 

 the greatly diminished amount of rainfall. This is southwestern 

 Texas, or more properly the low-lands of western Texas, and 

 south of the Nueces River the characteristic features of this 

 region attain their highest development. With the insect fauna 

 of this region I became tolerably well acquainted the past year, 

 during the investigation of the Mexican cotton-boll weevil \An- 

 thonomus grandis}, carried on by the U. S. Department of Ag 

 riculture. It differs essentially from that of Columbus, Tex., 

 but also, though in a lesser degree, from the fauna of the higher 

 plateaus of Texas north and northwest of San Antonio. Still, 

 southwestern Texas belongs, at least as far as the insects are con 

 cerned, to the lower Sonoran fauna, of which it forms a marked 



