192 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [April, 'l2 



Society at the Centenary of the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, to be celebrated March 19, 20 and 21. 



Mr. Laurent called attention to Circular 144, U. S. Dept. 

 Agric, and said he was not previously aware that Scolytus 

 giiadrispinosus injured the small stems and buds of the hickory. 



He also read a newspaper clipping, dated Woodbury, N. J., 

 January 30th, which read as follows: ". . . According to 

 fruit experts the yield of South Jersey the coming season 

 ought to be a record breaker. These men declare that when 

 the trees have a coating of ice once during the winter the fol- 

 lowing season is prolific in the yield as the ice kills any pests 

 that may have clung to the bark. Thus far there have been 

 three sleet storms, and at present every tree in Gloucester 

 County has a half-inch ice coating." The speaker asked 

 whether it was a fact that ice kills scale and other bark insects. 



Dr. Skinner made some remarks on the so-called Pharma- 

 cophagus Papilio, P. philenor and its alleged mimics, Papilio 

 glaitcus, polyxenes and troilus. The records of birds attack- 

 ing these insects are very meager and it is doubtful whether 

 P. philenor is poisonous or noxious to birds. A large amount 

 of careful experimental evidence will be necessary to prove that 

 the three species, in the female sex, mimic philenor, and that 

 their markings were thus developed. 



Mr. E. T. Cresson, Jr., suggested that Dasyllis may mimic 

 the non-predaceous bumblebee so that it may deceive other 

 insects on which it feeds, the latter mistaking it for a bumble- 

 bee and not tnaking an effort to escape. 



Henry Skinner. Sec'v. 



OBITUARY. 



Professor John B. Smith, State Entomologist of New 

 Jersey, eminent as an Economic Entomologist, endeared to 

 many friends by his personal qualities, author of important 

 memoirs on Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, died at New Bruns- 

 wick, New Jersey, on March 12, 1912. An account of his life 

 and work will appear in the next number of the News. 



