82 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Report of the Section of Biology 



The recorder presented a report in the shape of the proceedings of the 

 section, as follows : 



October ii, 191 i 



The meeting was held in the museum. 



Mr. Charles L. Pollard exhibited many bred specimens of the ailanthus 

 moth, Philosamia cynthia Drury, and remarked on their pattern varia- 

 tions. 



Mr. Stafford C. Edward's gave an account of a trip that he had made 

 during the summer to Colorado, where he had seen great numbers of 

 grasshoppers. One of the methods employed by the farmers of the region 

 in protecting their potato crops is to saturate a bean with a solution of 

 Paris green and place it in the path of the insect. 



Dr. HoUick reported having visited the hybrid oak locality at Tottenville 

 on September 30, and the locality at Cliffwood, N. J., on October 9. 

 Acorns were collected from one tree at Tottenville and from three trees 

 at Cliffwood. The trees at Tottenville are Qiiercus heterophylla and 

 those at Cliffwood Q. Ritdkinii. The acorns were collected for Dr. D. T. 

 MacDougal, of the Carnegie Institution, for planting in Arizona and Cali- 

 fornia. Seven small seedlings were collected at Tottenville and are now 

 planted in separate pots buried in the ground. An effort will be made 

 to pro*^ect and plant these permanently somewhere, in the future, so that 

 they may be preserved. Acorns from Tottenville collected some years ago 

 and planted in the New York Botanical Garden germinated, and about 

 fifteen trees are now in the plantation. Some are apparently true willow 

 oaks, others true red oaks and the remainder hybrids. 



A discussion followed. 



Mr. Charles P. Benedict remarked on certain butterflies with peculiar 

 wing patterns and exhibited specimens. 



Mr. Howard H. Cleaves reported having seen a fully adult bald eagle, 

 Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus (L.), at Great Kills, Staten Island, 

 on September 24, 191 1. The bird was observed to pursue a fish hawk and 

 cause the latter to release a menhaden that it was carrying. This took 

 place only fifty yards from the observer, who was equipped with field 

 glasses. 



Mr. Cleaves also reported having taken Cicindela marginata at Oak- 

 wood Heights beach on July 14, 191 1, while collecting beetles for the 

 Staten Island museum. This species has not heretofore been recorded 

 from Staten Island. 



Mr. Pollard exhibited a specimen of the longicorn beetle Goes tigrina 

 taken at West New Brighton, and remarked that this was only the second 

 record of the insect for the island. 



Mr. Charles W. Leng exhibited specimens of Lachnosterna prepared by 

 Mr. Robert D. Glasgow of Illinois to show the form of the genitalia; and 



