THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



be of the opposite sex. Gynandromorphous ants are especially 

 interesting, on account of the great differences between the 

 normal sexual forms. When the characters of the male and 

 female are united in the same individual, some absurdly asym- 

 metrical creatures are the result, such as forms with a big (male) 

 eye and small (male) mandible on one side, and a small (female) eye 

 and large (female) mandible on the other. When the male and 

 worker (that is, abortive female) characters are united in lateral 

 gynandromorphs, we have wings only on the male side of the 

 body, and the thorax on the worker side is defective, etc. The 

 great majority of known gynandromorphs occur among insects, 

 and among these the honey bees and ants have contributed a 

 proportionally very large number of cases. 



THE MEXICAN COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL. 



I EAR the entrance on the ground floor there has been 

 placed a special exhibit of the Mexican Cotton- 

 boll Weevil, the insect which has been and is 

 doing so much damage in the Cotton Belt of the 

 South. The insect is a beetle {Anthonomus gran- 

 dis) which deposits its eggs in the young cotton boll. The 

 developing larva consumes the cotton-producing tissue within 

 the boll and prevents the formation of the cotton, or greatly 

 injures the product. The exhibit shows the insect in its different 

 stages of growth, together with affected and unaft'ected bolls. 

 The maps forming a part of the exhibit indicate the recent rapid 

 extension of the pest from its original home in Mexico over the 

 cotton-raising areas of Texas. 



Two hundred African butterflies have been given to the 

 Museum by Mr. Samuel V. Hoft'man to be added to the great 

 series of butterflies which is the donation of the late \'ery Rev. 

 E. A. Hoffman. 



A WELCOME addition to the insect collections is the series of 

 North American Diptera (Flies) recently presented by Professor 

 William M. Wheeler, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology. The col- 

 lection contains more than 8,000 specimens, representing about 

 1,000 species. There are types of 169 species. 



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