June, '03] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 2CX) 



primitiveness of these two suborders (pace Dr. Gill) is nowhere distinctly 

 discussed. Expressions supporting the claims of the Zygoptera may be 

 found on pages 719*, 731 and 732, while the Anisoptera may find comfort 

 on pages 711, 721 and 722. The various groups are nowhere formally 

 defined, and it is not always easy to determine their limits from the refer- 

 ences made to them in the text. 



"Dynamic control in wing evolution" is considered with especial refer- 

 ence to the formation of bracing veins. In the summary of the article is 

 included a criticism of the present systematic grouping of fossil Odonata 

 with which the writer can well agree, on independent grounds. 



The ontogenetic method of study of wing veins which we owe to Piofes- 

 sors Comstock and Needham has certainly yielded some striking surprises 

 in the Odonata as well as among other insects. One of these is what Prof. 

 Needham here calls ' ' that most distinctive peculiarity of dragon-fly wings, 

 the crossing of the radial sector [subnodal sector of de Selys and Hagen] 

 over two branches of the media [principal and nodal sectors, de S. and H ] 

 and the development of the bridge" [basal portion of the subnodal 

 sector]. Another illustration is afforded by the true history of the vein 

 whose basal end was termed postcosta by de Selys In 1893 there seemed 

 to be good reason for believing that it was continued to the wing margin 

 by the "second sector of the triangle," and I considered the two as one 

 and the same vein. Now it is shown that this apparently continuous vein 

 (e. g. in some Zygoptera) is developed from two originally distinct and 

 separate tracheae. 



Finally, attention should be called to the fact that there are numerous 

 suggestions for further research contained in this paper, which its author 

 modestly terms " only a beginning of what should be done in the study of 

 the venation of the order. PHILIP P. CALVERT. 



"Beyond," in line 14 from the bottom, is apparently an error for 



" proximal to " 



i * 



Doings of Societies. 



At the meeting of the Feldman Collecting Social held April 

 i5th, at the residence of Mr. H. W. Wenzel, 1523 S. i3th St., 

 Philadelphia, eleven persons were present. Mr. H. \Y. Wenzel 

 read a letter from our fellow-member, Dr. Castle who is now 

 collecting in Florida. 



Mr. Biederman spoke on collecting A ret hiatus lucid us on the 

 Rogue river. He had taken over 20 specimens from February 

 i3th to 2ist., the thermometer being from 10 to 1 2 degrees 

 above zero, and the specimens had evidently juM emerged 

 from the chrysalis. They apparently do not fly before g. v > i>. .M. , 

 and he had never captured it after i A. M. He had not sue- 



