60 ENTOMOLOGICAL 'SOCIETY 



Paris had become nearly blind and taken on more or less of a 

 resemblance of an Anophthalmus. Here it could not have 

 existed under these conditions for over 1,000 years. 



Dr. Gill said that such a transformation, in his opinion, might 

 take place in a very much shorter time in fact, in a few genera 

 tions. He referred to the cave crayfishes and their resemblance 

 to surface forms and gave the discussion a somewhat broader 

 scope by the statement that we may find in caves the remains of 

 faunas which once existed, but which do not occur now in life, 

 referring in more or less detail to the Proteus of Carniola and 

 also to the blind bratuloid fishes of the caves of Cuba. In the 

 latter case, we have representatives of a fauna which was once 

 littoral, but which now exists only in the deep seas, so far as the 

 Caribbean representatives are known, aside from these cave rep 

 resentatives. Distantly related species are, however, found 

 along the coasts of other lands, but never in fresh water. 



Mr. Howard presented : 



SOME NOTES ON THE PARASITES OF ORGYIA 

 LEUCOSTIGMA. 



By L. O. HOWARD. 



[Author's Abstract.] 



The speaker referred to the extraordinary outbreak in 1886 of 

 Hyphantria cunea in the District of Columbia and to the fact 

 that although the insect existed by millions in August of that 

 year, so extensive was the parasitism that damage by the caterpil 

 lars was not noticed in 1887. He showed the large series of 

 hymenopterous parasites referred to in Bulletin No. 10 of the 

 Division of Entomology, revised edition, as illustrating the forms 

 concerned. In 1895 an almost equally disastrous outbreak of 

 Orgyia leucostigma occurred in the city of Washington. He 

 showed that by August the hymenopterous and dipterous para 

 sites of this species had become so abundant as to destroy proba 

 bly from 60 to 70 per cent, of the larvas and pupas and from this 

 fact it was anticipated that practical immunity would occur in 1896. 

 The case, however, was slightly different from that of the 

 Hyphantria since Orgyia hibernates in the egg-condition, the 

 former hibernating as a pupa. Enough egg-masses from the 

 Orgyia therefore remained to produce a very injurious second 

 generation of caterpillars in 1896, provided there was not 



