432 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



evident that the beetles had undergone their development within 

 this chamber, which must have been excavated by the larvae. The 

 brown spot was regarded by Mr. Hubbard as a fungus, but whether 

 the latter had made its appearance on account of the workings of 

 the Carpophilus larva beneath the epidermis of the leaf, or whether 

 the parent beetle carried the spores of the fungus from plant to 

 plant, was left undecided. An undescribed species of Hespero- 

 baenus lives as an inquiline or parasite in the Carpophilus bur 

 rows. 



Mr. Schwarz spoke of the so-called " saw-dust" ejected from 

 the burrows of wood-boring insects, and raised the question as to 

 whether this is really excrement or comminuted wood. He 

 showed a sample of the dust ejected from the burrow of a Si- 

 noxylon (Bostrichidae) inhabiting mesquite which was as fine as 

 flour. He referred to the paper by Mr. A. F. Burgess in Bul 

 letin 20 of the Division of Entomology on the injury to tan bark 

 by Dinoderussubstriatus\\\ reducing the hemlock bark to powder, 

 and stated that he was not sure that this reduction did not im 

 prove the tanning quality of the bark, referring to the superior 

 quality for medicinal purposes of Jalap after Scolytid ( Cryphalus 

 jalapce) attack as a suggestive parallel case. He stated that Mr. 

 Hubbard had given some of this fine powder of the mesquite to a 

 jeweler in order to test its value for polishing jewelry, and that 

 he was under the impression that the experiment was a success. 



Mr. Pratt stated that Mr. Hubbard had at one time a quart of 

 the powder made by some species of Lyctus in bamboo which he 

 stated he intended to use for polishing. 



Mr. Ashmead presented the first formal communication of 

 the evening, on the results of a classification of the Supei family 

 Ichneumonoidea. He exhibited his extensive manuscripts, now 

 practically completed, in which he has prepared a classification 

 of the Ichneumonoidea of the world.* He has divided the group 

 into six families, and of the more than i ,200 genera which have 

 been named he has tabulated 1,069 .valid ones ? the others being 

 synonyms or not recognized. He gave a general summary of 

 the scope of the paper, mentioning some of the subfamilies of the 

 principal families. In response to a question by Dr. Gill he 



*This work is published in Bulletin XXIII, U. S. Nat. Museum, 1900. 



