438 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Ashmead discussed briefly the characters used by Mr. 

 Currie and said that he considered him perfectly justified in the 

 founding of the new genus. 



Some discussion ensued between Messrs. Lugger and Ash- 

 mead on the habits of the Myrmeleonidae and also on the influence 

 of larval food on the size of the adult. Mr. Lugger said that 

 starved ant-lions could be reduced one-half in size, and Mr. Ash- 

 mead stated that in the Hymenoptera there was the greatest 

 variation in the size of individuals, due to food supply. He said 

 that he had seen specimens of Pimpla inquisitor which were 

 three or four times as large as other specimens of the same species. 



Mr. Ashmead said that he had found eggs on a coarse grass in 

 Florida which looked like Pentatomid eggs, and that he had reared 

 from them long-jawed larvae which he took to belong to the 

 Myrmeleonidae ; he thought that in Florida the larval growth 

 occupied not more than five or six weeks. Mr. Lugger in 

 Minnesota had kept the larvae for three or more months before 

 transformation. Mr. Lugger further said that if anyone wished 

 to study the Myrmeleonidaa he should visit Chinquateague Island, 

 off the coast of Virginia ; he had seen there a great abundance of 

 specimens of large ant-lion flies. 



Mr. Benton remarked on the difference in size in bees depend 

 ing upon the larval food ; and Mr. Curry referred to the increase 

 in the numbers of the genera of the Myrmeleonidae since the pub 

 lication of Hagen's Synopsis of the Neuroptera of North 

 America. 



Mr. Lugger referred to a curious case in which a few loads of 

 sand had been deposited in a perfectly sandless post-oak region 

 in Minnesota. The next year this little sand heap was covered 

 with the pits of ant-lion Iarva3, when, so far as he knew, the near 

 est sand occurring naturally was 12 to 15 miles away. 



The third paper was by Mr. Benton and was entitled 

 " Notes on Carniolan Bees, and a Peculiar Belief among Bee 

 keepers in Carniola, Austria, regarding the Drone Fly, Eristalis 

 tenax." He described at some length the topography of Car 

 niola and his four years' stay in that country in the early 'So's, 

 and the peculiarities of the Carniolan race of bees. He called 

 special attention to the fact that owing to the introduction of 

 Italian bees in the southern portion of the country the Carniolan 



