210 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Professor Riley said that he had personally examined this 

 and other large insect collections in Europe, and was of the 

 opinion that the British Museum collection was richer and 

 fuller and of more value to the student than any other. Prob 

 ably none of these collections have increased more rapidly than 

 that of the U. S. National Museum, but this was solely due to 

 the richness of material and the great activity among col 

 lectors. Unfortunately the Museum seems to have no funds 

 for the purchase of material and he was constantly under the 

 necessity of declining valuable additions offered, from lack of 

 means to purchase them. Therefore the collection was poor 

 in exotic material and American students were, as a conse 

 quence, under the necessity of visiting Kurope whenever they 

 wished to do any thorough work a state of things which is 

 greatly to be regretted, and which we should endeavor to 

 remedy. 



Mr. Schwarz said that considering the age of the public 

 collections of the United States they compared very favorably 

 with the much older collections of the European countries. 



In answer to a question by Mr. Howard, Prof. Riley said that 

 salaries given the Official Entomologists or Curators of entomo 

 logical collections at Berlin are very much lower than at the 

 British Museum or in this country. The subject of salaries and 

 the relation of these to living expenses was discussed by Messrs. 

 Fernow, Ashmead and others. 



Prof. Riley, under the head of ' ' Miscellaneous Notes, ' ' read 

 short papers, as follows : 



ON THE INSECTS AFFECTING THE AGAVE. 



BY C. V. RILEY. 



I have recently received from a valued correspondent in Texas 

 a series of insects obtained from the Century Plant, or Agave. 

 They were all obtained from the flower-stems of A. dasylyrium, 

 the specimens, which I exhibit, including the following : 



i. An interesting Cossonid, which evidently forms a new 

 genus and species. I sent the specimen to Dr. Horn, who 

 says it is certainly not one of the described species. He 

 further writes that it appears to be congeneric with the 

 species referred by him with some doubt to Amaurorhinus 



