304 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 

 December 3, 1906. 



The Section met at 8 : 30 P. M. at the American Museum of Natural 

 History, Vice-President Crampton presiding. 



The minutes of the previous meeting of the Section were read and 

 approved. 



The following program was then offered. 



R. H. Johnson, An Evolutionary Study of Coccinellids. 

 C. B. Davenport, Inheritance in Canary Birds. 



Summary of Papers. 



Mr. Johnson's studies, pursued at the Laboratory of the Carnegie 

 Institution for Experimental Research, gave these results: The species 

 of the larger lady-beetles exhibit a great variety of color markings. Many 

 of the varieties are connected by a series of intergrades, but generally the 

 intergrades are less abundant than the varieties. These constitute "posi- 

 tions of organic stability." T^'pical Hippodamia convergens is found 

 associated with and inter-breeding with its several varieties. In crossing 

 varieties with the parent species, there was either perfect dominance or 

 there were present, in various proportions, the parental forms, intergrades, 

 and some individuals more aberrant than the parent. These facts show 

 the existence of alternative inheritance in various degrees and therefore 

 probably some evolution by mutation. Modifications appeared in response 

 to temperature experiments in some species. In the evolution of these 

 markings the chief fact has not been natural selection but orthogenesis. 



The Section then adjourned. 



M. A, BiGELOW, 



Secretary. 



PUBLIC LECTURE. 

 December 5, 1906. 



The members of the Academy and their friends, to the number of over 

 900, met in the large auditorium of the American Museum of Natural 



