336 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



The final paper of the evening was read by Mr. Ashmead, 

 and was entitled " Some Important Characters in the Classifica 

 tion of the Bees.*'* He called special attention to the mouth- 

 parts and the wide structural difference to be found in them. He 

 also pointed out the morphological significance of some slight 

 differences in venation. He also spoke of the absence or pres 

 ence of the tibial spurs and their shape, as well as the difference 

 in the development of the labrum characters he considered to 

 be of great importance in classification. Figures showing several 

 characteristic types of mouth -parts, as well as the front wings 

 of many representative bee genera, such as Apis-, Mellipona, 

 Bombus, Xylocopa, Podalarius, Megachile, and Andrena, were 

 exhibited. The differences to which he drew especial attention 

 he considered of great taxonomic value, and he has made these, 

 correlated with other characters, the basis for separating the bees 

 into twelve distinct families. 



OCTOBER 20, 1898. 



The i37th regular meeting was held at the residence of Mr. 

 Wm. H. Ashmead, 1821 (^street N.W. Vice-President Gill 

 occupied the chair, and Messrs. Schwarz, Patten, Ashmead, 

 Webber, Cook, Marlatt, Kenyon, Dyar, Pratt, Motter, Benton, 

 Pollard, Howard, Busck, Johnson, active members ; Messrs. 

 Casey and Cooley, corresponding members, and C. O. Town- 

 send, F. E. Chapin, Rene Bache, and Dwight Sanderson, vis 

 itors, also present. Mr. F. Matthes, Washington, D. C., was 

 elected an active member, and Mr. R. A. Cooley, Amherst, 

 Mass., a corresponding member. 



Under the head of" Short Notes and Exhibition of Speci 

 mens," Mr. Pratt exhibited a specimen of Phyciodes tharos 

 which had been taken at electric light at night. 



Mr. Schwarz showed a dry flower stem of the Arizona bear- 

 grass {Nolina sp.), showing the work of the Buprestid beetle 

 Thrincopyge ambiens Lee., the single stem indicating the entire 

 life-history of the be'etle, which works in the center and does not 



* To be published elsewhere. 



