Dec, I9II-] Proceedings of the Society. 263 



show that, during their long history, the cockroaches as a group have 

 not remained as idle and stolidly generalized as we have been inclined 

 to believe. In connection with the description by Shelf ord (The 

 , Zoologist for June, 1907) of an aquatic cockroach (Rhicnoda nata- 

 trix) from the pools of Borneo, the following observations on a 

 desert species, are worth recording. On November 26, 1910, while 

 I was standing in the hot, glaring sun in the midst of the sandy 

 desert north of Yuma, Arizona, I saw a small swarm of about a dozen 

 insects flying toward me. They settled one after another on the sand, 

 ran hurriedly over its surface for a short distance in the direction of 

 their previous flight and then suddenly took wing again. They 

 seemed to be migrating by alternately flying and running over the 

 sand in a southwesterly direction. A few minutes later another 

 smaller detachment, taking the same course, passed over the same 

 spot. On capturing one of these insects, which behaved so much 

 like certain species of Cicindcla, I saw, to my surprise, that it was 

 a cockroach of about the size of our common " croton-bug " and of 

 the same pale, grayish yellow color as the sand. I then set about col- 

 lecting a number of specimens. Some of these were later identified 

 by Mr. J. A. G. Rehn as Homocogamia subdiaphana Scudder subsp. 

 mohavensis Rehn and Hebard. I walked about over the sandy desert 

 for some hours but no more swarms appeared. Although these obser- 

 vations are very fragmentary, they prove that this Blattid in its 

 adaptation, at least during certain seasons, to an exposed, diurnal 

 life in dry deserts, exhibits a remarkable contrast to our northern 

 cockroaches with their pronounced positive thigmotaxis and negative 

 phototaxis. — W. M. Wheeler. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOG- 

 ICAL SOCIETY. 



Meeting of Tuesday, October 18, igio. 



Held at the American Museum of Natural History at 8.15 P. M. In the 

 absence of the president, Dr. E. G. Love was elected to preside. Twenty mem- 

 bers and one visitor present. 



The minutes of Tuesday, October 4, were read and approved. 



The secretary read a communication from the curator, Dr. F. E. Lutz, 

 reporting that arrangements would be made by the Museum authorities to take 



