March, 1922.] PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 77 



Mr. S. G. Rich, present as a visitor, spoke briefly of his experiences in 

 South Africa. 



Mr. Davis announced the death on February 6, 192 1, of Charles H. 

 Sunderland, one of the Society's oldest members. 



Mr. Wm. T. Davis exhibited the grasshopper Conocephalus nigropleuroides 

 (Fox), female, collected on the salt meadow near Oakwood, Staten Island, 

 September 14, 1914. He stated that Mr. H. Herbert Johnson, Jr., had col- 

 lected a second female on the salt meadow near Old Place, Staten Island, 

 September 8, 1920. The species was described from Cape May County, N. J., 

 by Dr. Fox and has been reported by Rehn and Hebard from Ventnor, near 

 Atlantic City, N. J. It has not been previously recorded from the State of 

 New York. Conocephalus spartina (Fox) is a common species on Staten 

 Island, and has also been collected on Long Island. 



Meeting of March 15. 



A regular meeting of the New York Entomological Society was held at 

 8 P.M. on March 15, 1921, in the American Museum of Natural History, 

 Pres. John D. Sherman, Jr., in the chair, with 28 members and two visitors 

 present. 



Mr. Nicolay reported for the Outing Committee, on excursion to Van 

 Cortlandt Park and to the Palisades. Communications from World Metric 

 Standardization Council, W. Dwight Pierce, W. J. Chamberlin and Warren 

 Knaus were read. 



Dr. Lutz read a paper on " Geographic Average, a Suggested Method foi 

 the Study of Distribution," which has been printed in American Museum Novi- 

 tates, March 14, 1921. His method would substitute for such ambiguous terms 

 as Arctic, Hudsonian, Canadian, etc., definite average degrees of latitude and 

 longitude, calculated from the known distribution of the plants occurring 

 within the region conceded to be Arctic, for instance. Such calculations, once 

 carefully made, would furnish a definite index with which the flora of any 

 particular locality could be compared or with which the average distribution 

 of any particular species of plant or animal could also be compared. Provi- 

 sional latitudinal averages, based on the distribution given in Britton & 

 Brown's " Illustrated Flora," were : 



Arctic More than 52° N. 



Hudsonian 4S or 49° N. 



Canadian 44 or 45° N. 



Alleghenian 41 or 42° N. 



Carolinian 38 or 39° N. 



Louisianian Less than 34 ^'• 



Dr. Lutz laid much stress on the fundamental studies of Merriam and of 

 Allen, pointing out the early and valuable work of the latter in differentiating 

 the arid and humid divisions of the warmer temperate region. 



