62 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Caudell exhibited a colored drawing of a nymph of 

 Scudderia furcata Brunn. This brightly colored nymph is 

 not uncommon in the vicinity of Washington, D. C. A nymph 

 of one species of this genus, probably the same as here men 

 tioned, was described by Mr. J. A. G. Rehn as Spilacris tnacu- 

 Idtus, new genus and species in the Stenopelmatinse. 



Doctor Stiles propounded the query, " Why does not an 

 insect grow as large as a crow or other animal?" Consider 

 able discussion followed, and it was asked by Mr. Banks, 

 " Why does not a crow get as small as a beetle." Dr. Mor- 

 rill thought that the insect's size was governed by the me 

 chanical difficulty of construction of muscles and Doctor 

 Ashmead believed that its size was limited by the fact that 

 an exoskeleton heavy enough to contain the necessary organs 

 and to furnish support for the muscular attachment would 

 be too heavy to move. 



Mr. Weidheimer exhibited some well prepared speci 

 mens of Citheronia regalis Fab., and of what he considered 

 to be the rarer species, C. inf emails Strecker. 



Mr. Banks presented a note on a proposed new classifi 

 cation of the Limnephilidse, a family of the Trichoptera. He 

 stated that the spur formula, the present basis of classifica 

 tion, had long been known to be defective in many cases. He 

 had therefore sought many times for other characters, es 

 pecially in the venation and in the chsetotaxy of the vertex. 

 Differences in these respects are useful in grouping genera, 

 but not of sufficient importance to serve as primary char 

 acters of subdivision. Recently, however, he had found a 

 minute character which would divide the family into two 

 nearly equal groups. This character is the presence or ab 

 sence of spines on the last joint of the hind tarsi. The appli 

 cation of this character would divide several heteromorphous 

 genera, as Stenophylax and Halesus. This minute difference, 

 although seemingly trivial, is constant ; at least more constant 

 than is the spur formula. Specimens illustrating this char 

 acter were shown. 



Mr. Banks presented also a note on a new classification 

 of the ticks or Ixodoidea. The family Ixodidse he divided 



