—64- 



cases they folded their wings as quickly as possible and dove out of 

 sight; whether any of these capsized ones made a second efifort I could 

 not determine. When they made a good flight they rose rapidly to a 

 height of forty or fiftv feet, then flew away with the wind and would be 

 very quickly lost to sight. The species is one rather common in this 

 locality, Gyrinus atialis. 



I also saw several individuals of /fir/ro/Z^/Ms^/a^c/' on stones and 

 sticks several inches above the surface of the water but did not see any 

 of them take to flight. 



It was a warm spring day, and about half past four when I first 

 nciticed the beetles. I watched them till nearly sundown, but they were 

 not nearly so plenty the latter part of the time, partly perhaps on account 

 of the change in temperature, possibly partly on account of my taking 

 advantage of their terrestrial habit to secure a number of specimens. 



Ames, Iowa. Herbert Osbokn. 



* 

 We have received a circular referring to a Summer Course in Ento- 

 mology and General Invertebrate Zoology at the Cornell University. 

 Ithaca, N. Y. Prof. J. H. Comstock is in charge of this Department, 

 and the course will comprise lectures, laboratory practice and field work. 

 It will begin INIonday, June 21st, and continue )0 weeks. The fee to 

 others than college graduates or undergraduates taking regular courses 

 at the University, will be $25. This is an excellent way of spemling a 

 summer vacation — it enables an Entomologist to follow his hobby, ami 

 at the same time initiates him into methods of study that will prove ad- 

 vantageous to him in the further pursuit of his favorite science. 



-*♦*- 



Book Notices. 



Dinapate Wrightii and its larva. By George W. Horn. M.I). Tiaiis. .Am. 

 Knt. Soc. XIII, pp. 1 — 4 and Fl. I. 



That a Bostrychid, nearly two inches in length, sho Id remain so 

 long undiscovered is passing strange; but this is what Dr. Horn presents 

 to us in the above paper. It is from the Mojave desert, Calif., which if 

 the rest of its fauna is as peculiar as this species must be an I'ntomo- 

 logical paradise. 



Society News. 



Brooklyn Entomological Society. May 4th, 1886. — Twenty iiiembtis 

 pre-sent, the President in the chair. Dr. S. W. Williston of New Haven, Conn., 

 was elected a member of the Society. Mr. Leng was appointed a committee to 

 arrange for the annual excursion of the Society on May 31st. 



Mr. Smith read a paper on "Ants' nests and their inhabitants", giving a 

 popular account of myrmecophilous insects and their habits. Dr. Williston 

 supplemented the acount with further notes on the Diptera found in ants nests 

 either in the larval or mature stage, and remarked on some curious resemblances 

 of certain Diptera to ants. 



Mr. Weeks read a brief paper on .some parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera, 

 merely mentioning the facts of their occurrence. Dr. Williston added a few 

 remarks on the life habits of some Tach'mxAs. 



