Sept., 1903.] Proceedings of the Society. 175 



Mr. Davis, of the field committee, announced that the next field meeting would 

 be held Sunday, May 3, near Patterson, N. J., with Mr. Hennan Erb as guide. 



Also the third outing of the season would take place at Mosholu, Sunday, May 17. 



Mr. Morgan Hebard, of Philadelphia, Pa., was elected an active member of the 

 Society. 



Mr. Joutel stated that he had been requested by the Brooklyn Entomological So- 

 ciety to determine whether or not the New York Entomological Society would be 

 willing to print its proceedings in our JoURNAl,. 



On motion of Mr. Eeng the society voted to allow two pages of each issue of the 

 Journal for printing the proceedings of the Brooklyn society. Mr. C. T. Brues then 

 gave a talk on "Ant and Termite-guests,'" illustrated by lantern slides. The ex- 

 amples mentioned were drawn, some from previous accounts of other authors, and 

 others from the speaker's personal experience in collecting these insects in Texas. 

 He said that at the present time there had been described over 2,000 species of 

 Arthropods which live occasionally or regularly in ant and termite nests. 



Of these Coleoptera and especially Staphylinidiv are the most numerous, although 

 insects of all orders are represented. In all of them there is a tendency to produce 

 strange and remarkable forms and to develop structures suited to their rather pre- 

 carious existence. This could be well seen in the Dipterous family Phoridre, which 

 contains some of the most peculiar of all myrmecophiles. lie spoke of the habits of 

 a large number of the insects thrown upon the screen, roughly classifying them into 

 welcome, indifferent and dangerous guests, although such a classification is useful 

 only as a convenience. In regard to termitophiles he spoke of the physogastric or 

 swollen condition of the abdomen which is characteristic of all true termite-guests 

 and attributed it to the way in which they were stuffed with food by the white ants. 

 In conclusion the speaker showed a picture of Termitoxenia Wasm., which he re- 

 garded as one of the most remarkably specialized insects ever described. 



Mr. Leng inquired if Cremastochilns was milked by the ants. Mr. Brues replied 

 that it was. 



Mr. Joutel asked if the habits of the Staphylinidce which lived with the queen 

 termite had been worked out. Mr. Brues stated that he thought their habits were 

 not known. 



Mr. Leng also inquired if it was thought that these myrmecophilous beetles acted 

 as scavengers. Mr. Brues replied that generally the ants were very particular to keep 

 their nests clean themselves although some of the staphylinids were very fond of any 

 grease which they could find on the walls of the nests. 



Mr. Barber then spoke concerning the rare beetle Miicodera arctica Payk., which 

 he had collected last summer near the base of Mt. Katahdin in Maine at an elevation 

 of 3,000 feet. One specimen was taken under a stone. Mr. C. Schaeffer had deter- 

 mined the specimen for him. Mr. Samuel Henshaw wrote him in reference to this 

 species that he had record of its capture in northern Michigan, Alaska and New- 

 foundland. He also mentioned that he had collected 58 specimens of a probably 

 new species of Coccinelid at Lakehurst, N. J., on April 9, pronounced by Mr. Leng 

 to be Brndtyacautha^ n. sp., or a European species. 



Society adjourned. 



