238 



PSYCHE. 



'March 1S92. 



over an alpine lake in the Tetragebirge, en- 

 gaged in a new kind of sport, for they occa- 

 sionally settled down upon the surface and 

 after remaining there a few moments, per- 

 haps half a minute, again took flight, repeat- 

 ing the performance many times ; on settling 

 they apparently attempted to rest on the 

 wings of one side only, but the other soon 

 became involved, and after repeated experi- 

 ments at this play, the moisture-laden wings 

 refused their duty and the butterfly came to 

 grief, as the numerous corpses floating about 

 testified. 



The report of the gypsy moth committee to 

 the legislature of Massachusetts, just issued, 

 shows that the insect is now found in about 

 thirty cities and towns, including about two 

 hundred square miles of territory; its limits 

 at last appear to be pretty well defined, but 

 it was found in excessive abundance at places 

 fifteen miles apart; over three quarters of a 

 million of egg-clusters were removed and 

 destroyed during the year; excellent illustra- 

 tions accompany the report. 



Dr. Klebs, of Konigsberg, has published a 

 list of the specimens in the amber-museum 

 of Stantien and Becker of that city, covering 

 more than 13000 numbers of which a very 

 large number are insects. He here records 

 for the first time the presence in amber of 

 the coleopterous families Trichopterygidae 

 and Bruchidae ; but in a summary list of 

 families, indicating the general arrangement 

 of the museum and where all families known 

 to be represented in amber are marked with 

 a special sign, one half of the twenty-eight 

 families of Coleoptera not so marked have 

 certainly been credited by one author or 

 another as occurring in amber. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB. 



13 November, 1S91. — The 165th meeting 

 ■of the Club was held at 156 Brattle Street. 

 Mr. Samuel Henshaw was chosen chairman. 



A letter was read from the secretary of the 



Royal Society of South Australia, of Ade- 

 laide, offering to exchange publications. It 

 was voted to accept the offer. 



The librarian announced that there was a 

 duplicate copy of "Illustrations of Insects 

 (Heteroptera)", by Townend Glover, and 

 moved that the same be offered for sale by 

 the treasurer, and the proceeds added to the 

 publication fund of Psyche. This motion 

 was carried. 



Dr. George H. Horn stated that he had re- 

 cently been studying the subgenus Celia of 

 Amara, and remarked at some length on the 

 characters heretofore made use of in the sep- 

 aration of the species. One character which 

 had been proposed for the separation into 

 groups was found in the prosternum, this 

 being punctured in the males of some spe- 

 cies and in others not. Dr. Horn, however, 

 regarded this division as likely to confuse 

 the student, as in some species the proster- 

 num may be either punctured or not in the 

 male. 



Some discussion followed with regard to 

 the construction of synoptic tables. 



Mr. S. H. Scudder read a letter from Mr. 

 Edward Doubleday Harris, reporting the 

 finding of a bright green chrysalis of Laer- 

 tias philenor in New York, one of several 

 raised. Of this color it has never before been 

 reported from the Atlantic slope. 



Mr. R. Hayward stated that he had recently 

 been studying the Cicindelidae, and had 

 found in his collection an Amblychila which 

 he presumed should be referred to the form 

 A. piccolominii of Reiche. The specimen 

 was smaller than the typical A. cylitidrifor- 

 tnis, smoother, and the carina of the elytra 

 nearest the suture was absent and represented 

 by a row of large punctures. The specimen 

 was from Arizona. 



Dr. Horn thought it might belong to a 

 species recently described by Rivers from 

 that locality. 



Mr. Hayward showed specimens of the 

 larvae and pupae of Boletotherus bifurcus 

 from Underhill, Vt. 



