22G 



PSYCHE. 



[October— December 1SS4 



suggestions in regard to its inanagement. 

 After considerable discussion it was decided 

 to refer the matter to the Executive com- 

 mittee. 



Mr. B : P. JIann presented (through tlie sec- 

 retary) a communication upon "Food-plants 

 of Pulxnnaria innumcrabilis.^'* [Printed in 

 Psyche, Oct.-Dec. 1SS4, v. 4, p. 224.] 



Dr. G : Dimmock showed a large larva of 

 some species of oestridac ( .'' Cuiercbra cmas- 

 ailator), which had been sent to him bj Mr. 

 Leroj II. Sykes, of Suffield, Conn. This 

 larva was taken by Mr. Sykes, about 20 Sept. 

 1SS4, from beneath the skin of a chip-squirrel 

 (Xcimitis s/rin/iis) just at the right of the 

 median ventral line near the umbilicus. Mr. 

 Sykes thinks the squirrel was a castrated 

 male. 



Dr. M. A. Hagen commented upon and 

 read some notes from a manuscript journal 

 ofChristoph Zimmermann, chiefly concern- 

 ing the coleopterist Dr. F. E. Melsheimer and 

 his relatives. Zimmermann, who came to 

 Philadelphia in 1S32, later visited Melsheimer 

 at his home in Hanover, Pa., and describes 

 his visit. [See Canadiaji entomologist. Oct. 

 1SS4, v. 16, p. 191-197.] 



14 Nov. 1S84. — The 105th meeting was held 

 at 19 Brattle St., Cambridge, 14 Nov. 1SS4, 

 the president, Mr. S: H. .Scudder in the 

 chair. 



The secretary gave notice of the withdraw- 

 al from the club of Prof. E. L. Mark, of 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



Dr. H. A. Hagen alluded to some inter- 

 esting points in the histology of the rectal 

 muscles of a lepidopterous larva, recently 

 brought to light by Rev. F.- T. Ilazlewood, of 

 Lynn, Mass. 



Mr. S ; H. Scudder exhibited a piece of 

 leather-like fabric produced by the larvae of 

 some species of Mexican lepidoptera ; and 

 also showed seed-capsules of a species of 

 PclargoHium,vi\\\c\\ were perforated by some 

 insect in escaping from them. 



Mr. S: H. Scudder exhibited a specimen 

 of a carboniferous arachnid {Gcntliiiiiiu car- 

 bonaria) recently discovered at Mazon Creek. 



Illinois, which was of interest because it w-as 

 the first recorded instance of a fossil of the 

 order to which it belongs, — the fedifalpi. 

 It was described in June last in the Proceed- 

 ings of the American academy of arts and 

 sciences. Curiously enough, only nine days 

 later, another species of the same genus, from 

 Rakowitz, Bohemia, was described by Kusta 

 under the name Tlielyflionus ho/iemiciis, in a 

 paper in the Transactions of the Bohemian 

 academy, which has just reached this coun- 

 try. This adds still another to the already 

 frequent instances of the occurrence of the 

 same generic type of arthropods in the car- 

 boniferous deposits of Europe and America. 



Dr. H. A. Hagen made some remarks in 

 regard to swarming of Atropos divinatorius 

 in houses. 



12 Dec. 1SS4. — The io6th meeting was held 

 at 19 Brattle St., Cambridge, 12 Dec. 1SS4, 

 the president, Mr. S: H. Scudder in the 

 chair. 



Mr. S: H. Scudder made some reinarks 

 upon a fossil beetle from Ontario, Canada, 

 and upon a fossil scorpion from the Silurian. 

 This scorpion had been mentioned by Lins- 

 trom in a letter to a friend in this country, 

 and an extended notice of it will be prepared 

 in conjunction with Thorell. This discovery 

 is important, as it places the origin of the 

 araclnioidca back in the silurian, and because 

 of its showing further peculiar characters 

 whicli may ally it to the mirostomata. 



Dr. G : Dimmock showed pieces of the ex- 

 crement of the larva of Sphinx diNpi/cniriim. 

 which are often of excessive length in pro- 

 portion to their diameter, in comparison 

 with the excrement of other sphingidiic. 

 This prolongation of the excrement of the 

 larva of this species is coordinate with a 

 prolongation of the part of the larva behind 

 the "caudal horn." Dr. Dimmock also ex- 

 hibited excrement of an undetermined larva 

 whicli feeds on Pinus strobiis: the excrement 

 consisted of pieces, each made up of three 

 spheroids arranged in a straight line. 



Mr. S: H. Scudder reviewed a paper on 

 fossil insects, mostly cockroaches, published 

 by Moritz Kliver. in Palacontogiaphica for 

 1SS3. under the title "Leber cinige neue 

 blatlinarien-. zwei dictyoneura- und zwei 

 arthropleura-arten aus der Saarbrucker stein- 

 kohlenformation." 



