PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN 
Vou. VIII. No. 7. 
The regular meeting of the Association was 
held at the Staten Island Academy. 
In the absence of the president Mr. How 
ard R. Bayne was elected chairman fro-/em 
The following memorandum from Mr Wal- 
ter C. Kerr was read: 
SWARMING OF ALLORHINA NITIDA. 
On Saturday June 7th, tgoo0, my attention 
was attracted to a swarm of what seemed to 
be bumble bees, around a bed of cannas in the 
grounds of the Richmond County Country 
Club at Dongan Hills. On investigation 
however they proved to be a swarm of bee- 
tles (A/lorhina nitida), They were clustered 
about the cannas, some resting on the stems, 
others crawling down between the leaves and 
the stems, while some were burrowing more 
or less in the ground. Many were flying 
about, causing a loud buzzing. which quite 
imitated that of a swarm of bees. The num- 
ber was not estimated but there were prob_ 
ably several hundred. Some were captured 
and given to Mr, Wm. T. Davis, who in- 
formed me that the swarming of another bees 
tle of a closely allied genus had been before 
reported. 
The following reviews were read by the 
Secretary- 
RECENT LITERATURE RELATING TO 
STAIEN ISLAND, 
I. Zhe Serpentines of Man/.attan /sland and 
Vicinity and Their Accompanying Minerals, 
D. H. Newland. School of Mines Quarter- 
ly, xxii (April 1901) 307-317. 
ISLAND. 
JUNE 8th, rgot. 
In this paper there is a separate article on 
the Staten Island serpentine, occupying pages 
309-316, with figures 1 and 2, showing the mi- 
croscopic structure of specimens from Mart- 
ling’s Pond and Pavillion Hill respectively 
In discussing the general characters of the 
rock the author says that typical specimens, 
on superficial examination, show little else 
than serpentine. with a few crystals or bunch- 
es of chromite and scales of talc and chlorite. 
The fibrous habit is noted from the Pavil- 
lion Hill locality and the replacement of ser- 
pentine by amphibole crystals, which causes 
the rock to be more resistent to erosion and 
weathering and is usually marked by sharper 
contours in the topography, as indicated along 
the eastern and southern borders of the area 
‘The lamination and jointing of the rock are 
mentioned and also the fact of the joint surf- 
aces being slickensided as the result of pres- 
sure, which the author thinks may be due to 
some extent to the increase in bulk by alter- 
ation of the original minerals, 
Microscopic examination of a specimen from 
the excavation made for the abandoned Ger- 
mania Brewery at Four Corners show the rock 
to be largely composed of amphibole more or 
lessserpentinized, Pyroxene, chromite, mag. 
netite, chlorite and tale were also found 
Examination of the specimen from the vic- 
inity of Martling’s Pond showed in addition 
the presence of olivine and the Pavillion Hill 
specimen was found to be adark, massive, 
_ completely altered serpentine. containing tale, 
chronite and magnetite, which the author con- 
