OF WASHINGTON. 147 



a road I could see at the same time thirty or more specimens 

 of the fly all suspended in exactly the same way, while 

 numerous others were constantly going or coming. 



With reference to the manner of flight described in this note 

 on Empida, Prof. Riley said that long-bodied insects of slow 

 flight must necessarily hang more or less vertically, instancing 

 the flight of long-bodied Lepidoptera, Lampyridae, Tipulidae, 

 etc. With reference to the hanging of these flies while feed 

 ing, he said that it was not uncommon for Bombi to hang sus 

 pended by their jaws to plants while asleep. 



Mr. J. M. Aldrich mentioned having observed a large Asilid 

 apparently asleep hanging from a blade of grass by its fore 

 feet, and holding a large beetle. 



Mr. Marlatt mentioned having noticed a wasp (Cerceris 

 fumipennis Say) for two days in succession hanging to a par 

 ticular plant of Solidago. Examination showed that the 

 wasp, which was hanging by its jaws, was dead, it having 

 evidently died during sleep. 



Mr. Mann said that he had found a bee sleeping in this po 

 sition. Attention was also called to Mr. Emerton's figure in 

 Psyche, Vol. 5, of Vespa metadata hanging by a single hind 

 foot and feeding on a fly. 



Mr. Howard mentioned Thaxter's figure of Chauliognathus 

 pennsylvanicus infected by an entomophthorus disease hanging 

 by its jaws to the edge of a leaf (Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., v. 4). 



Mr. Schwarz called attention to a recent publication by 

 Ed. Fleutiaux and A. Salle in the Ann. Soc. Ent. de France 

 for 1889 (1890), on the Coleoptera from the Island of Guade 

 loupe, West Indies. Of five hundred and seventeen species 

 there enumerated not less than seventy occur also in the 

 United States, and these can be classified as follows : twenty 

 are cosmopolitan species ; twenty-eight are more or less 

 widely distributed in North America, and more especially in 

 the southern States ; twenty-two belong to the colony of semi- 

 tropical insects in North America, most of them occurring in 

 the semi-tropical belt of Florida and a few in the extreme 

 southwestern region of the country. 



