170 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



species also seem to be more numerous on plants growing in 

 swamps than on those growing on dry land. The wide geo 

 graphical range of this beetle was also pointed out, as well as 

 the fact that in the more northern climates it is remarkably 

 constant in coloration, but quite variable in more southern 

 latitudes. 



Mr. H. W. Turner stated that he had seen in California a 

 Coccinellid, probably Megilla vittigera, which likewise congre 

 gates in enormous numbers. 



Mr. Howard said that Mr. C. D. Walcott at a recent meeting 

 of the Biological Society of Washington had called attention to 

 the congregation in large numbers of a lady bird (probably 

 Hippodamia convergent) on rocks just at the snow line in the 

 Rocky mountains. Mr. Schwarz replied that this should not 

 be considered as a voluntary congregation ; the beetles were 

 carried upwards by ascending currents of air along the slope of 

 the mountain and falling upon the snow fields either perished 

 from cold or managed to reach rocks or other objects projecting 

 from the snow. While in Colorado he had seen at an alti 

 tude of about 12,000 feet the snow fields thickly covered with 

 such multitudes of Phyllotreta pusilla and Hippodamia conver 

 gent that the glare from the snow, otherwise so trying to the 

 eyes, was perceptibly diminished. 



Mr. Mann said that he had not been able to get Cocdnella 

 bipunctata to feed indoors in winter-time on Aphides, and that 

 this species did not occur very abundantly in houses. 



Prof. Riley's second paper was as follows : 



ON THE LARVA AND SOME PECULIARITIES OF THE 

 COCOON OF SPHECIUS SPECIOSUS. 



BY C. V. RlLKY. 



In elaboration of some former remarks on the life-history of 

 Sphecius spedosus made at the meeting for September 4, 1890, 

 I wish to submit a more detailed description of the larva, and 

 at the same time to draw attention to a remarkable peculiarity 

 of the cocoon. The larva in form, color and general appear 

 ance resembles the typical larvae of the fossorial wasps, so far 

 as we already know them. It possesses great extensile and 

 contractile power, the anterior segments, more particularly, 



