128 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Xylophagid^. Williston, Entomologica Americana, i, 114, 1885. 



STBATiOMYiDa:. WiUiston, 1. c. 



Lepxid^;. Williston, op. cit. i, 10, 1885. 



Tabanids:. Osten Sacken, Prodrome, etc., Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., ii, 1874-78. 



BoMBYLiDa:. Osten Sacken, West. Dipt., Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. iii, 189, 1877 ; 

 Coquillett, Canadian Entom., 1886. 



AsiLiDa:. Williston, Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc. xi, 1, xii, 53. 



DoLiCHOPODiD^. Loew, Monographs, ii, Smithsonian, 1864. 



CEsTKiDa:. Brauer, Monographic der ffistriden, Vienna, 1864. 



CoNOPiD^. Williston, Trans. Conn. Acad, iv, vi, 1882, 1885. 



STBPHiDiE. Williston, Bull. National Museum, 31, 1886. 



MusoiD^ ACALYPTEATa: {Ortaliclce, Trypetidce, Sciomyzidce, Ephydridce) . Loew, Mon- 

 ographs, etc.,i, iii, Smithsonian, 1862, 1873. 



ANTHOMYiDa:, HiPPOBosciDa;, SAEOoPHAOiDa:, Dexids:, etc. Bigot, Annales Soc. Ent. 

 Fr. 1880-86. 



NOTE ON A REMARKABLE FOSSIL. 



BY ROBERT HAY, JUNCTION CITY, KAS. 



Some time ago, on Sand creek, in Woodson county, a farmer's plow turned up 

 what might be called a fine concretion in a district where concretions are plentiful. 

 It was an oblate spheroid, very nearly a sphere, made of the hard clayey ironstone, 

 so common in that region in the form of nodules. Its smallest circumference is 9 

 inches, its greatest circumference 9i inches. Being so nearly a sphere, it was a boy's 

 toy for six months, when a spirit of investigation being upon him, he broke it with 

 an ax and showed the internal structure. It appeared to the boy and his friends to 

 be a perfectly petrified walnut. The fracture made two concave hemispheres, out of 

 which dropped the round nut broken into several pieces, showing internal septa. A 

 few small fragments were lost, but the rest then fell into the hands of J. B. Stockton, 

 of Toronto, by whose kindness the writer is permitted to submit it to the Academy. 

 The outside portion of this petrifaction, to the thickness of five-sixteenths of an inch, 

 is undoubtedly concretionary matter. Within that and closely adherent to it is 

 another layer, that seems as certainly to be of organic origin. This layer is three- 

 sixteenths thick, and seems of a fibrous structure like the outer rind of a walnut or 

 hickory nut. The concave surface of this layer is irregularly marked with hard 

 brown lines, which stand in slight relief from the rest, which is softer and yellowish 

 in color. The spaces between the lines are wider near the poles of the sphere. This 

 envelope shows no signs of segments in any direction. The outside surface of the 

 included nut is marked by lines and spaces corresponding to those on the concavity 

 of its envelope, but giving a much smoother surface, being somewhat smoother than 

 the corresponding surface of an English walnut. This shell appears to be divided 

 into three layers, having a total thickness of one-eighth of an inch, and a fourth 

 layer another eighth, which sends ofif the septa across the nut. The principal septum 

 is double. The internal cavities are hollow, having probably been filled, before the 

 nut was broken, with some softer material, as dust or sand. The longest diameter 

 — transverse to the septum — is one inch and five-eighths; the shortest, one inch and 



