270 Journal New York Entomological Society. Voi xviii 



Meeting of Tuesday, February i, 1910. 



Held at the American Museum of Natural History at 8.15 p. m., President 

 C. W. Leng in the chair, with seventeen members and two visitors present. 



In the absence of the secretary the president asked Mr. Dickerson to 

 act in that capacity. 



Dr. Lutz, the curator, called attention to the screen which had recently 

 been installed for use with the lantern and exhibited the January number of 

 the Museum Journal containing a photograph of the society's meeting room. 

 Copies were presented for distribution among the members. He stated that 

 a number of the maps for illustrating the local distribution of insects had 

 been printed and on three of these indicated methods which might be used. 

 On one the distribution of Cicindela dorsalis and generosa was shown, on 

 another the topographical conditions and on the third the areas included by 

 So-mile circle. Further methods were also suggested. He stated that Dr. 

 Petrunkewitch had corrected his copy of Emerton's "Common Spiders," bring- 

 ing the nomenclature up to date. 



A specimen of Pieris oleracea acquired by the society and taken in the 

 vicinity of Paterson was also shown by Dr. Lutz. 



Dr. Zabriskie, chairman of the executive committee, stated that the do- 

 nation of $25 to the Fletcher Memorial Fund had been forwarded by the 

 treasurer, and read a letter from Mr. Arthur Gibson, secretary of the Me- 

 morial Fund Committee, acknowledging the receipt of this donation and 

 thanking the society for it. Moved by Dr. Zabriskie, duly seconded, that this 

 letter be placed on file. 



Under scientific discussion and papers — Mr. Schaeffer called the society's 

 attention to an article in a recent number of Tijdschrift voor Entomologie on 

 the habits of Methoca, a group of parasitic Hymenoptera which oviposit on 

 the larvae of Cicindela. 



Mr. Dickerson gave some notes on Rhynchitis bicolor which had been 

 reported in injurious numbers at Worcester, Mass., last year, and at other 

 times in other localities. The insect occurs widely distributed in the United 

 States, but in his experience in New Jersey was somewhat local and commoner 

 at some points than at others. For several years he had noted it on Rosa 

 nigosa at New Brunswick, N. J., and had observed it there feeding and ovi- 

 positing on the seed capsules, the latter operation lasting somewhat over 

 fifteen minutes, and the beak being used in making the puncture and pushing 

 the egg into place. Beetles began to appear in May and were first observed 

 feeding on the unopened buds. Specimens of the feeding and egg punctures, 

 petals injured by the beetles, and the insect in the egg, larval and adult stages 

 were exhibited. 



Dr. Lutz spoke on " Notes on Evolution as Illustrated by Experiments 

 with Insects " and said that recently there had been much discussion as to 

 the effects of selection, and some students of evolution felt that while the 

 soma might be affected by it the germ cells were not. Jennings had stated 

 that nothing new was formed by selection and Pearl, of the Maine Experiment 



