OF WASHINGTON. 303 



species are smaller than Gopherus. Referring to the American 

 forms, he said that we must not assume that agassizii and ber- 

 landieri burrow. They may differ in habit from the Florida 

 species. He asked whether any other specimens of the frog had 

 been found by Mr. Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard replied that he 

 had taken several additional specimens, among them one gravid 

 female, which he had given to Dr. Stejneger of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



Mr. O. F. Cook made some general remarks under the 

 head of "Insect Collecting in Africa." He spoke of some 

 rarities which he had collected in Liberia in his work upon his 

 own special group the Myriapoda, exhibiting drawings of one 

 remarkable form. He further spoke in general upon some of 

 the more striking features of the insect fauna of Liberia and 

 gave in considerable detail his experience with driver-ants. 

 These insects, he thinks, have taken the place of a Liberian St. 

 Patrick, /. e., they are responsible for the almost total absence 

 of snakes in Liberia. He concluded by asking if the driver-ants 

 have any permanent domicile or whether they are invariably 

 peripatetic. Mr. Schwarz said that no trace of a more or less 

 permanent nest of Eciton has ever been found, and that, further, 

 no queen has been found. They make temporary nests, but 

 are more or less constantly travelling. The true nest, he thinks, 

 will some time be found, owing to this very fact that no queen 

 is yet known. He called attention to the fact that the Rev. 

 P. Jerome Schmidt has found a species of Eciton in North 

 Carolina and that the same gentleman had discovered several 

 inquilinous species. Dr. Gill and Mr. Cook discussed the 

 question of disparity in size in sexes of Myriapoda. Mr. Ulke 

 spoke of some recent experiences with ants in Maryland. 



Mr. Ashmead read the following paper : 



RHOPALOSOMID/E,* A NEW FAMILY OF FOSSORIAL WASPS. 

 By WILLIAM H. ASHMEAD. 



Recently, in monographing our North American Braconidae, 

 it became necessary for me to make a study of a most extraordi 

 nary insect, the RJiopalosoma Poeyi, originally described by 



I prefer this form to Rhopalosomatidae. 



