Vol. XXXJ ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 25 



Botanical Abstracts. 



Under this title there has appeared No. i, Vol. I, dated September, 

 1918, of "a monthly serial furnishing abstracts and citations of publi- 

 cations in the international field of botany in its broadest sense. 

 The Board of Control of Botanical Abstracts has charge of the publi- 

 cation. With the beginning of the year 1919, the membership of the 

 Board of Control will be representative of the [13! various American 

 botanical societies. At that time each society will be represented by 

 two members, one elected for a period of two years and the other for 

 a period of four years. After January, 1919, each society will elect a 

 member for a period of four years, at intervals of two years, to re- 

 place its representative who automatically retires." It is planned to 

 issue two volumes of 300 pages each within one year, at $6.00 for the 

 two volumes. This first number bears on its cover the names of an 

 editor-in-chief and 15 editors for different divisions of botany with 

 others still to be announced. As Entomology is so closely linked with 

 Botany this magazine will be very useful to those cultivating the for- 

 mer. Indeed so "broad" is the "sense" of botanv interpreted that we 

 find in this number summaries of articles whose content is zoological 

 or entomological and not botanical, e. g., "Inheritance in Orthoptera," 

 "A preliminary report on some genetic experiments concerning evo- 

 lution" [largely concerned with the gypsy moth], "Studies in inheri- 

 tance in the hybrid Philosamia (Attacus) ricini (Boisd.) $ Philo- 

 samia cynthia (Drury) $ ." The publishers are the Williams and 

 Wilkins Co. of Baltimore. 



The Larval Habitat of Chalcomyia aerea Loew. (Diptera, 



Syrphidae). 



On March 4 Dr. R. D. Glasgow brought to me a number of larvae 

 of the above species which he had found in a dead basswood log at 

 Augerville Woods near Urbana. Along with these were several 

 larvae of the tipulid Xiphura fitmificnnis O. S., and one of Xylota 

 fraudulosa Loew. On March 13 the latter produced an imago, and on 

 March 14 two males of aerea appeared. 



The only record of the larval habitat of the latter is that published 

 by Metcalf in his "Syrphidae of Ohio." His record states that a pupa 

 was found under the bark of a log lying close to a river and whether 

 the larva had gone there to pupate or had lived in the log was left 

 in doubt. The larvae very closely resemble those of Eristalis, posses- 

 sing a long slender tail-like caudal respiratory appendage, but the log 

 in which the specimens before me were found was not supersaturated 

 and as Xylota fraudulosa does not possess a long caudal appendage 

 it is difficult to explain the relation between the structure of Chalcomyia 

 larva and its habitat. J. R. MALLOCH, Urbana, Illinois. 



