Feb., '05] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 63 



ing Secretarj', Frank Haimbach ; Curator, Henrj'^ Skinner ; 

 Librarian, J. C. Bradley; Publication Committee, E. T. Cres- 

 son, C. Few Seiss, B. H. Smith ; Executive Committee, 

 Philip Laurent, H. W. Wenzel, Frank Haimbach ; Finance 

 Committee, J. W. McAllister, C. S. Welles, D. M. Castle. 



Henry Skinner, Secretary. 



A meeting of the Entomological Section of the Chicago 

 Academj' of Sciences was held November 17th, at the John 

 Crerar Library, nine persons present. 



Dr. C. F. Adams, of the University of Chicago, took the 

 floor, his subject being " American Dipterologj'." His talk 

 was of a historical nature, naming the epochs through which 

 the study of American Diptera had passed, its principal de- 

 votees and collections, and partlj' describing the work being 

 done by present students. 



Thomas Say, the so-called father of American Entomology, 

 was the first American to write of the Diptera, but nothing of 

 great magnitude or importance was accomplished until Osten- 

 Sacken and Loew, both Europeans, entered the field. Their 

 work extended over many years, and has proved invaluable to 

 later students. Walker, of the British Museum, described a 

 large number of species, but his descriptions were poor and 

 man\' of the species proved to be sj'nonymous with others pre- 

 viously described. The first real American Dipterist, as Df. 

 Adams put it, to enter this field of research was Prof. S. W^. 

 Williston in 1879. He described three new species in 1880, 

 and published a monograph of the Syrphidae in 1886. This 

 was the first publication by an American Dipterist of a revi- 

 sional character and gave new impetus to the study. The first 

 edition of Prof. Williston' s " Manual of North American Dip- 

 tera," appeared in 1888, the latest revised edition, in 1896. 

 Since then Prof. Williston has devoted most of his time and 

 attention to tropical Diptera, and his latest work appears in 

 the " Biologia Centrali Americana." 



Present workers mentioned by Dr. Adams include : 



Mr. D. W. Coquillet, of the National Museum, an earnest 

 student and prolific writer. 



