494 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec., '08 



Doings of Societies. 



At the meeting of the Feldman Collecting Social held Sep- 

 tember 17, 1908, at the residence of Mr. H. W. Wenzel, 1523 

 South 1 3th Street, Philadelphia, seventeen members were pres- 

 .ent, also Mr. O. T. Elleder of Russia, Mr. W. S. Fisher of 

 Highspire, Pa., and Mr. R. Pearce of Philadelphia, visitors. 



Prof. Smith spoke of the spread of Daremma catalpae Bois. 

 throughout the State of New Jersey and its great abundance 

 during several years. In 1906 it began to lessen in numbers in 

 the regions that were first invaded, and parasitism became 

 more obvious. In 1907 this tendency became even more mark- 

 ed, and during the season of 1908, the larvae were really rare 

 in most parts of the State, parasites seeming to have caught 

 up with the species, and brought it under control. He also 

 spoke of other natural controls of injurious species and ex- 

 pressed his opinion that no one kind of check was controlling 

 for all species, that diseases in one case did what parasites did 

 in another, and that weather conditions were often as impor- 

 tant as either, acting independently or with one or both the 

 other factors. Some cases of hyper-parasitism were also re- 

 ferred to as influencing the effect of the primary forms. Dis- 

 cussed by Mr. Viereck, Prof. Calvert and Dr. Skinner. 



A letter from Mr. Roswell H. Johnson to Mr. H. W. Wenzel 

 was read and specimens illustrating the color variation of Hip- 

 pod amia convergens-quinquisignata group were shown. 



Mr. H. W. Wenzel exhibited pieces of floor boards of second 

 story of a club-house at Anglesea, N. J., which were infested 

 with Hylotrupes bajalus. The work of the insect is invisible 

 until the destruction is complete. Dr. Skinner spoke of a case 

 of the same insect, where the damage done was not noticed 

 until the piano had fallen into the cellar. 



Mr. Elleder spoke about his collecting of Coleoptera in this 

 country. He has been collecting in and near Philadelphia for 

 about one year, and finds that many of the families are com- 

 paratively rare here. The Cicindcla on the other hand are re- 

 presented in all of Russia by only four species, while here they 

 are very numerous, and he suggested that a Cicindcla should 

 be incorporated in the coat of arms of New Jersey. The gen- 



