OF WASHINGTON. 337 



appreciably injure the plant. Some discussion followed upon 

 the bear-grass and the allied yuccas and Dasylirions of the arid 

 region, more particularly in regard to the destruction of flower 

 stalk by cattle in spite of the especially protective growth. 



Mr. Heidemann showed three species of Aradidae new to 

 the District of Columbia, viz., Aradus crenatus Say, A. brevi- 

 atus Bergr., and A. inornatus Uhl., with comments upon their 

 habits and characters. He also showed specimens of Calls ius 

 pallices Stal., from Florida, a species hitherto known only from 

 South America, and which must now be added to the fauna of 

 boreal America. Mr. Ashmead remarked that he had found this 

 last species under the bark of dead orange trees killed by frost. 



Mr. Howard called attention to an outbreak of the chinch 

 bug upon lawns in the city of Brooklyn during the months of 

 July and August last, pointing out that the sudden appearance of 

 this insect in enormous numbers in the center of a densely popu 

 lated city hundreds of miles from any previous point of destruc 

 tive appearance and in the middle of a summer characterized by 

 excessive precipitation and upon closely cut lawns which had 

 been frequently watered, afforded an instance entirely unprece 

 dented in the history of the species. 



Dr. Dyar read the first paper of the evening, entitled " Notes 

 on Acronycta and their Larvae," in which he spoke of a forth 

 coming work prepared by himself and Dr. J. B. Smith.* He 

 called especial attention to the fact that his own classification of 

 the group from the larvae coincided in a remarkable manner with 

 Dr. Smith's classification of the group derived from the study of 

 the adult characters only. He showed that the larvae may be 

 divided into three main groups, and illustrated his remarks by 

 the exhibition of specimens. 



The paper was briefly discussed by Messrs. Casey, Gill, How 

 ard, Cook, and Kenyon. In reply to a question by Mr. Howard, 

 Mr. Dyar stated that he had applied the results obtained by Dr. 

 Chapman, of England, in the classification of the pupae of this 

 group to our North American species with admirable results, but 

 that there was not as close a parallel between Chapman's classifi 

 cation of the pupae and Smith's classification of the adults as he 

 had found to exist between his own work on the larvae and Smith's 



* Published in Proc. U. S, Nat, Mus., Vol. XXI, 1898, pp. i -194. 



