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Society News. 



Brooklyn Entomological Society. December 1, 1885. Fifteen members 

 present, Mr. Cramer the chair. Un motion of Mr. Roberts it was resolved to 

 purchase for the Society an album or albums in which should be presi rved the 

 portraits of members of the Society and of such other Entomologists as would 

 send their portraits to the Society. Mr. Roberts read a short paper on habits of 

 Elmis. Ordinarily they are found on sticks in running water or in moss or weeds 

 in the streams. While digging out a Bembidium in gravel, some little distance 

 from a stagnant pool, but still near enough for water to percolate easily, he came 

 upon an Elmis, species not yet determined. He dug further and made a little 

 pool, stirring continually, and in short time took 30 specimens. 



Mr. Weeks read an article "Concerning Cremastochilus"* sent in by Dr. 

 Horn with an added note by Mr. Schwarz. Prof. Mayer exhibited a pupa-nest 

 of Euchira socialis from the Rio Negro, S. A. 



Mr. Hy. Edwards presented to the Society a box of rare Coleoptera. suggest- 

 ing that they be sold at auction for the benefit of the Society. After informal 

 discussion and exhibition of specimens, the meeting adjourned. 



Entomological Society of Washington, Dec. 3, 1885. Mr. Otto Lugger 

 in a humorous speech presented a persimmon walking-stick to >the Society 

 which had been curiously carved by the larva of Dicec t obscura while in use. A 

 discussion followed on the breeding habits of Buprestidae. 



Mr. J. B. Smith gave Utah Territory as a new locality for Pleoconia Behrerts'i 

 and exhibited a specimen and proceeded to read a paper on the larva of My& 

 Una vitlata. A number of these larvae had been found by Messrs Smith and 

 Schwarz under a login November, feeding upon a mold. Mr. Smith exhibited 

 carefrd drawings of the larva and specimens of both larva and adult. A discus 

 sion followed upon the lateral appendages of this and similar larvae, and their 

 uses, in which Prof. Riley and Messrs Schwarz, Smith, Osborne, Lugger and 

 Howard took part. 



Prof. Riley made some remarks on the larval habits of Lixus. He had bred 

 L. macer in 1872 in Missouri from stems of Ohenopodium hybridum in which the 

 larva bored, and from which the beetle issued normally from a hole at the end 

 of the burrow. He had recently however from Mr. F. M. Webster, evidence 

 that the same species works in the stems of Helianthus in Illinois; but that in- 

 stead of issuing through a round hole, the stem is cut thi'ough from the inside 

 at the upper end of the burrow and plugged with fibre, the beetle issuing from 

 the cut end. Lixus parcus makes a gall on Amelanchier in California. He also 

 spoke of Pcediscus obfuscata Riley Mss. as a twig-girdler, issuing from the ori- 

 fice of amputation, but that the orifice instead of being plugged as with Li; us, 

 was webbed up with silk. 



Mr. Mann spoke of the use of the Dewey decimal system for purposes of in- 

 dexing as adopted in Psyche. Mr. Howard and Prof. Riley spoke on the lateral 

 appendages of the larva of Corydalus cornutus and their probable function and 

 the former mentioned the relation between the heart-beat of this larve and . e 

 contractions of the groups of branchire. 



Mr. E. A. Schwarz called attention to the food habits of an undescribed Cal- 

 andrid beetle allied to Macrancylus which was found by Mr. H. G. Hubbard io 

 develope in the stems ane roots of Acrosthintm aureum in Southern Florida. 

 L. O. HOWARD, Corr. Secy. 



* Published in full, ante p. 187. 



