THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 39 



and abdomen. Tegmina hyaline with light brown veins, granules very small 

 bearing black hairs, a dark mark at end of commissure, wings hyaline with 

 brown \eins. 



Opening of p\gofer round, margin produced into a small lobe at each side 

 of the anal segment; anal segment small with a pair of small, stout spines on 

 the medio-ventral edge, touching at their bases and slightly diverging to the 

 apices; armature or diaphragm small. Y-shape; genital styles long, flat, slightly 

 curved, slightly narrowed at middle, apex truncate with the corners slightly 

 produced. 



Length 1.6 mm.; tegmen 2.0 mm. 



Female lighter in colour, especialh' so on coxtc and abdomen. 



Length 2.2 mm.; tegmen 2.8 mm. 



Habitat. — Demerara River, British Guiana. 



SAMUEL WENDELL WILLISTON. 



In the death of Samuel Wendell Williston, on August 30, 1918, American 

 entomology has lost one of its keenest students. Although his professional 

 work lay mainly in pakeontology, in which field he attained great d'st'nction, he 

 also ranked as the foremost American dipterist of his time and a world-author- 

 ity in this branch of entomology. 



The following brief sketch of his life is based upon, and largely quoted 

 from, the admirable account by Prof. J. AL Aldrich, whch appeared in the 

 November number of the Entomological News (vol. XXIX, pp. 322-327, with 

 portrait). 



Samuel W^endeil \\'illiston was born on July 10, 1852, and was, therefore, 

 66 years old when he died. At this time and for some years previously he was 

 Professor of Palaeontology and Director of the Walker Museum in the LTniversity 

 of Chicago. His boyhood was spent at Manhattan, Kansas, where he entered 

 the Agricultural College, graduating in 1872. He began to study medicine in 

 1873, but in the following two years he spent the summer months in fossil- 

 collecting expedit'ons in Western Kansas, the work being done for Prof. Marsh, 

 of Yale L'niversity. After a winter at the Medical School of the University of 

 Iowa, he visited Prof. Marsh in the spring of 1876,- and this visit resulted in 

 almost continuous emp'oyment with Marsh for nine years, until 1885, when he 

 recei\ed his Ph. D., spec alizing in pakeontology. He also managed to finish his 

 med cal course in 1880, and in 1886 was appointed demonstrator in anatomy at 

 Yale Medical School. So great was his abil'ty as an anatomist that he obtained 

 a full professorship in Human Anatomy "n the follow'ng year. 



After three years in th s position he accepted a call to the University of 

 Kansas as Professor of Historical Geolog\' and Pakeontology. Twelve years of 

 arduous and productive work followed, during which he helped to organize the 

 Medical Department of the University and took on the dfeanship of the latter in 

 addition to his other duties. 



Though possessed of a vigorous constitution, his health began to give way 

 unde the strain of overw'ork, so that, after resigning from this post, he went to 

 Chicago in 1902 as Professor of Palaeontology, in which capacity he was able to 

 concentrate upon his chosen specialty. Here he spent the last 14 years of his 



Februarv-. 1919 



