202 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



JANUARY 4, 1895. 

 {Special Meeting.} 



President Ashmead occupied the chair, and Messrs. McGee, 

 Schwarz, Riley, Stiles, Benton, Marlatt, Gill, Heidemann, 

 Dodge, Patten, and Howard were present. 



The Treasurer read his annual report, showing a balance of cash 

 on hand to the amount of $144.92. 



Mr. F. W. Urich, Honorary Secretary of the Trinidad Field 

 Naturalists' Club, Port of Spain, Trinidad, B. W. I., and Mr. 

 H. Soltau, 251 E. 53d St., New York, were elected correspond 

 ing members. 



The retiring President, Mr. Ashmead, then delivered his 

 annual address : 



ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



SOME IMPORTANT STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS IN THE 

 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PARASITIC HYMENOPTERA. 



BY WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD. 



Until within a few years, we have had, in America, compara 

 tively few systematic workers in the order Hymenoptera, but 

 since the publication, in 1887, of "A Synopsis of the Families and 

 Genera of the Hymenoptera of America, north of Mexico," by 

 our leading Hymenopterist, Mr. E. T. Cresson, considerable 

 activity and interest in the order has been manifested, and to-day 

 new workers are taking up the work where Cresson left off. 



It is this aroused interest in the order which induces me to 

 select the subject for my address, " Some important structural 

 characters in the classification of the parasitic Hymenoptera," 

 although other reasons and considerations weigh equally with me 

 in my choice. 



Many of our students appear to be unfamiliar with the exten 

 sive and rapidly increasing European Hymenopterological litera 

 ture, and, judging from some recent work, in which the old lines 

 of classification are still adhered to, seem to imagine that Cresson's 

 work contains all the essentials for systematic work. The ex- 



