494 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Currie showed a specimen of Brachynemurus abdomi- 

 nalis (Say) with imperfect development of the hind wings, which 

 had been collected by Messrs. Collins and Maxon at Soldiers' 

 Home, D. C. 



The first paper of the evening was by Mr. Howard, and was 

 entitled "An Artificial Hastening of Development." In this paper 

 he showed that after treating the surface of the water in a large 

 glass vessel containing several hundreds of the full grown or nearly 

 full grown larvae of two species of Culex, many of them in from 

 15 minutes to 2 hours transformed to pupaB, and that from a num 

 ber of these pupse the adults issued within 15 hours, whereas un 

 der normal conditions the shortest duration of the pupa stage 

 which he observed was 48 hours. He compared this apparent 

 attempt at the perpetuation of the species in the presence of a 

 unique emergency which threatened death to the well known phe 

 nomena in plants which blossom profusely after serious injury of 

 one kind or another, and also to the inordinate desire for sexual 

 intercourse on the part of human beings affected with certain fatal 

 diseases. 



The paper was discussed by Messrs. Waite, Gill, Johnson, Mar- 

 latt, Ashmead, and Hay. 



Mr. Waite said that certain species of fresh water algse break 

 up into zoospores when oxygen fails in the water supply ; thus in 

 mounting specimens for the microscope in water under glass 

 slides this development is apt to take place almost immediately. 

 He further stated that with flowering plants inordinately profuse 

 blooming frequently indicates heretofore unsuspected root rot, 

 and referred to the blooming of trees after girdling. 



Mr. Johnson stated that heavy over-bearing in fruit trees is 

 sometimes followed by premature autumnal blossoming, which he 

 thought indicated an injury to the tree from over-production. 



Mr. Marlatt said that in the citrus orchards of Southern Cali 

 fornia the orchards best cared for by irrigation and cultivation 

 have splendid foliage but little fruit, whereas uncared for and 

 abandoned orchards are often seen to be over-loaded with fruit. 



Similar instances with other crops were mentioned by Mr. 

 Waite. 



Mr. Ashmead said that the Diptera seemed peculiarly able to 

 transform under unusual conditions. He said that with certain 



