OF WASHINGTON. 165 



after dinner and only laid it down at midnight having read care 

 fully every word within its covers. Can you imagine that any 

 entomologist, no matter how strong his interest in the subject, 

 could keep himself from falling asleep over the pages of the 

 publications of any of our contemporary societies after a hard 

 day's work and a good dinner ? 



Of the papers read 107 have treated of the habits or transfor 

 mations of insects ; 24 have treated of the geographical distri 

 bution of insects or of the characteristics of the insect fauna of 

 more or less restricted regions; 13 may be classified under the 

 head of economic entomology ; 9 have delt with bibliographical 

 topics ; 9 can be classified only as general papers, including a 

 variety of topics ; 9 have been devoted to the consideration of 

 some one or many phases of parasitism ; 6 have been biographical 

 in their character ; 5 have been devoted to questions of technique ; 

 4 have considered insect physiology ; 4 have treated of the insect 

 faunas of certain plants ; 4 have been devoted to evolutionary 

 topics as evidenced in entomology ; 3 have discussed collecting 

 methods ; 3 have touched upon insect products ; questions of 

 synonymy have received treatment in 2 papers ; the relations of 

 flowers and insects have been discussed in 2 ; poisonous insects 

 in 2 ; cave insects, the edibility of insects, the relations of birds 

 and insects, and mimicry have been treated in i paper upon each 

 topic. One paper has been historical in its character. The 

 seasons of insects have been treated in i paper, and I paper has 

 been given before us on the subject of Nematodes. 



Among the orders of insects, we have paid the most attention 

 to the Coleoptera. Messrs. Schwarz, Riley, Smith, Lugger, 

 Horn, Ulke, and Linell are responsible for this preponderance 

 of coleopterological papers. In all, 91 papers relating to this 

 order have been read. Second in rank comes the order 

 Hymenoptera. Messrs. Ashmead, Marlatt, Riley, Pergande, 

 and Howard, with one or two others, have presented 58 papers 

 referring to this order. The order Lepidoptera has been pre 

 sented by 36 papers, which were mainly presented by Messrs. 

 Smith and Riley, although Messrs. Lugger, Marlatt, and Schwarz 

 are also represented in this list. Upon the insects of the order 

 Hemiptera we have listened to 22 papers. On Diptera 19 papers 

 have been read. Upon Orthoptera 7 papers have been read, and 

 upon Neuroptera and Pseudo-Neuroptera 4. There has been 

 a very large number of papers presented upon different phases 

 of the study of the Arachnida. The Society has been fortunate 

 in possessing among its members so eminent a student of this 

 group as Dr. George Marx. He and his co-laborers, Messrs. 

 Fox and Banks, have read 49 papers upon this class, and to this 

 fact is due the presence upon our list of corresponding members 



