44 THE FLORIDA ENTOMOLOGIST 
of the expedition was to investigate insects which are a source of 
great loss in the banana plantations of the United Fruit Co. Be- 
cause of the ravages of the Panama blight disease in the older 
plantations the company is obliged to constantly seek new banana 
lands and are constantly pushing their plantations up the valleys 
towards the dry interior. 
Most of the collecting done by the speaker was along the Tela 
and Truxillo divisions of the company’s railroad, but a trip was 
made over the mountains into the more arid interior. Here the 
fauna was quite different from that of the banana country. Dr. 
Hubbell found the orthoptera of the region especially interesting. 
Ticks were very abundant and troublesome. He spoke of the 
very interesting ants which inhabit the thorns of the Acacia trees. 
In the humid coastal section many of the insects were special- 
ized for arboreal life. Gorgeous butterflies were very abundant, 
as were also snakes. Mimicry was common. Dr. Hubbell did some 
collecting about lights at night thereby catching many valuable 
specimens that otherwise would have been missed. 
He described the culture of bananas. Paths are cut thru 
the jungle and the banana slips planted. The entire forest is 
then cut and, when sufficiently dry, burned. The banana shoots 
immediately spring up and have a start of the other vegetation. 
Practically no cultivation is given except to cut down the brush 
and old banana stalks. 
January 18, 1924. The regular meeting of the Florida Ento- 
mological Society was held in Language Hall, the president, Geo. 
B. Merrill, in the chair. The following members were present: 
Bates, Berger, Beyer, O’Byrne, Merrill, Montgomery, Walker, 
Watson. 
Meeting opened with the election of officers. All former offi- 
cers were reelected. 
The program of the evening included reports from several 
members who were in attendance at the Cincinnati and Birming- 
ham meetings. The first speaker, Dr. E. W. Berger, reported that 
the A. A. A. S. meetings at Cincinnati were well attended. He 
gave a brief account of Dr. Hamlin’s address on the biological 
control of cactus as illustrated by Australia’s struggle to control 
the prickly pear cacti which overrun the entire country, by means 
of introducing insects and diseases. Great difficulty in introduc- 
ing any control measures is experienced because of the fact that 
