OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XV, 1913. 21 



Section 5 to be the present Section 4. 

 Article III, Section 3, third paragraph to read as follows: 

 Honorary members shall be proposed only by the Executive 

 Committee. They shall then be voted upon by all of the active 

 members of the Society, the ballot being taken by mail, due notice 

 of the Committee's nominations having been sent to each mem- 

 ber. Ballots received later than 60 days after the mailing of the 

 Committee notice shall not be counted. A unanimous vote of 

 the Executive Committee shall be necessary to a proposal and 

 a four-fifths vote of the active members casting ballots shall be 

 required to elect. 



The question of a seal for the Society was mentioned and it 

 was moved and seconded that the Executive Committee take up 

 the matter with power to act. 



Under the title ''Some recent Experiences in Europe" Dr. L. 

 0. Howard spoke of his last summer's trip to England, France, 

 Holland and Germany for the purpose of interviewing European 

 shippers of nursery stock to America and the officials charged 

 with the carrying out of the foreign inspection laws. He also 

 spoke especially of the International Entomological Congress at 

 Oxford and showed photographs he had taken of many of the 

 European entomologists in attendance as well as of others he 

 had visited on the continent. 



The second paper was presented by Mr. W. R. Walton: 



THE VARIATION OF STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS USED IN THE 

 CLASSIFICATION OF SOME MUSCOIDEAN FLIES. 



BY W. R. WALTON, Bureau of Entomology. 



Since the publication of Baron Osten Sacken's admirable Essay 

 of Comparative Chsetotaxy 1 in 1881, the use of characteristic 

 bristles as a means to the classification in the Cyclorapha has 

 become general among dipterologists and has resulted as a whole 

 to the great advantage of science. There must, however, exist 

 a limit beyond which these chsetophorous characters become un- 

 reliable, especially as a guide to specific values. So it has been 

 with this idea in view and in hope of securing data regarding such 

 limitations that these somewhat fragmentary studies have been 

 undertaken whenever proper material and time permitted. 



1 Mitth. d. Munchener Entcm. Vereins, vol. v, pp. 121-138. 18S1. 



