128 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, *O2 



certain species of Cicindela. He did not believe C. consaitanea, 

 patnicla and sc.\gnttata to be identical as some workers seem to 

 think. In the West, species are attracted by lights at night, 

 whereas in the East the same species do not seem to have this 

 habit. 



Prof. Smith spoke of the entomological work of Mr. John Ak- 

 hnrst, of Brooklyn, N. Y., whose death has been announced. 



Prof. Smith reported that the Newark Entomological Society 

 had appointed a committee to arrange for an inter-city field meet- 

 ing on July 4th., and had delegated him to ask the co-operation 

 of this society. 



On motion, the following Committee w^as appointed to confer 

 with the Newark Society on this matter. Messrs. H. Wenzel 

 and Fox ; Johnson, cx-officio. 



WILLIAM J. Fox, Secretary. 



A meeting of the American Entomological Society was held 

 February 27, thirteen persons present. The President, Mr. 

 P. P. Calvert, occupied the Chair. The thanks of the Society 

 were extended to Mr. S. N. Dunning for his gift of a valuable 

 collection of Hymenoptera and to Prof. John B. Smith for the 

 presentation of species of Leucania new to the collection. Mr. 

 Rehn stated that Mr. Viereck and himself expected to spend 

 ten weeks in collecting insects in Texas, Mexico and New 

 Mexico. Mr. Rehn also exhibited a collection of Orthoptera 

 from San Diego, California. It contained five genera new to 

 the collection and some new species. Dr. Calvert spoke on the 

 importance of applying statistical methods to large series of 

 individuals in order to determine, by percentages, what are the 

 more variable, and what are the less variable differences between 

 animals. He contended that this is the only true method for 

 determining what characters are of generic and specific value, 

 and that every student w 7 ho has large series at his disposal 

 should gather such statistics as the basis of work in classifica- 

 tion (taxonomy) . He illustrated his remarks by statistics which 

 he is gathering during the progress of his work on the Odonata 

 for the Biologia Central!- Americana. 



H. SKINNER, Secretary. 



