PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



OF WASHINGTON. 



Vol. XIII OCTOBER - DECEMBER, 1911 No. 4 



Meeting of July 6, 1911. 



Mr. E. A. Schwarz entertained the special summer meeting 

 of the Society in the Saengerbund Hall on July 6, and there 

 were present Messrs. Barber, Busck, Cushman, Gahan, Gill, 

 Heidemann, T. H. Jones, Knab, McAtee, Myers, Quaintance, 

 Rohwer, Schwarz, Viereck, and Walton, members, and Messrs. 

 Sanford and Wall, visitors (and also two other gentlemen whose 

 names the secretar}' did not ascertain). First Vice President. 

 Quaintance occupied the chair. 



The previous minutes were read and approved. 



Under "Notes and exhibitions of specimens," Mr. Viereck 

 started the discussion of the approximate number of insects by 

 stating that the latest estimate seems to show that there are 

 close to 75,000 species of described Hymenoptera, a third of 

 this number being found in the Tenthredinoidea, Siricoidea, 

 Vespoidea, Formicoidea, andSphecoidea; about another third, 

 comprising the Cynipoidea, Chalcidoidea, Proctotrypoidea, and 

 Apoidea, while the remaining third belongs to the Ichneu- 

 monoidse. This grand total evidently represents only a small 

 percentage of species in this order, as the majority of the super- 

 families continue to yield increasing numbers of new species 

 as explorations are carried into fields and countries hitherto 

 unexplored hymenopterologically. 



Mr. Rohwer stated that the number of undescribed species 

 of Ichneumonoidea was probably many times greater than the 

 number of undescribed species of Vespoidea or Sphecoidea. 

 The reasons for this are the lack of revisions of the Ichneu- 

 monoidea, and the difficulties encountered in placing the species 



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