92 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



of pupae of Cratotechus upon leaves, but had never seen any 

 remains of the host insect. Mr. Cushman's account of the 

 rapid external feeding of the nearly mature Cratotechus 

 larvae and the sudden diminishing of the host larva to almost 

 nothing indicates that the remaining skin must easily be 

 blown away, leaving nothing but the pupae of the parasite. 



Mr. Quaintance spoke on the apparent effect of climate in 

 restricting the western distribution of the plum curculio. An 

 inquiry into the western limits of distribution of this insect 

 has shown that it does not occur, except with one or two ex- 

 ceptions, west of about the one hundreth meridian. In other 

 words, it is confined to the humid area of North America. 

 It is not understood why the curculio does not occur in some of 

 the irrigated fruit-growing regions in the West, except that it 

 perhaps has not been there introduced. This insect, during 

 its transformation in the ground, is very susceptible to mois- 

 ture conditions. As several observers have noted, the effect 

 of the drought is to arrest the issuance of the beetle from the 

 ground, whereas after a soaking rain these appear often in 

 enormous numbers. 



Mr. Quaintance further remarked that it would be of much 

 interest to follow up the effect of the very cold weather of 

 the present winter on insect life in the environs of the District 

 of Columbia. Collectors of insects in this territory have noted 

 a more or less imtermingling of northern and southern forms, 

 the proportion varying, depending upon the character of the 

 winters during the preceding two or three seasons. Some in- 

 teresting comments on this point were published by Dr. 

 Chittenden in one of the Bureau of Entomology bulletins, 

 issued some years ago. 



-Dr. Dyar exhibited two papers entitled "Contributions to 

 the Natural History of Lepidoptera of North America, vol. 1, 

 Nos. 1 and 2, by William Barnes, M.D., and J. H. McDun- 

 nough, Ph.D. The first paper treats of the Cossidae of North 

 America, the second of the lasiocampid genera Gloreria and 

 its allies. Photographic figures are given of the species treated. 

 Dr. Dyar said that the title was somewhat misleading, as there 

 is no "natural history" as usually understood in tfee books, 

 the taxonomy only being considered. However, Dr. Dyar 



