154 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 395. 



papers by others than the actual or honorary 

 members of its staff. 



In the matter of attendance the American 

 Museum of Natural History had 461,026 visit- 

 ors, the U. S. National Museum 358,587, and 

 the Field Columbian Museum 248,408, this 

 being a falling off from the previous year. 

 The Field Columbian Museum is the most 

 difficult of access locally, the National Mu- 

 seum is the easiest, while the American Mu- 

 Rftiim has the largest adjacent population to 

 draw from. 



The exijenses of the Field Columbian Mu- 

 seum were $160,545, of the American Miiseum, 

 $191,584, and of the National Museum, 

 $243,540. But $17,000 of this last was for 

 publication and $28,040 for additions, rent and 

 repairs, so that the actual cost of administra- 

 tion was not so great as it might seem. 



i'OTES ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



For a number of years Dr. J. L. Hancock, 

 of Chicago, has been studying that difficult 

 family of grasshoppers, the Tettigidse. He has 

 now summarized his studies in an elegant 

 volume.* 



The work opens with an excellent general 

 account of the family, including much inter- 

 esting matter on habits, variation, protective 

 coloring, etc. The generic and specific de- 

 scriptions appear to be good, but the sjTioptic 

 tables seem to be badly arranged. In fact 

 something appears to have been omitted from 

 several of them, so that they are of little value. 

 The aiithor has apparently no definite idea as 

 to his species and varieties, for what are 

 treated as varieties in one place are elsewhere 

 called species. Altogether the author describes 

 about 85 species, about 48 of which occur in 

 the United States. Unfortunately Dr. Han- 

 cock did not see the National Museum col- 

 lection in time to include two new species 

 and one new variety that are added in an ap- 

 pendix. It seems probable that future study 

 wiU reduce the number of species in our coun- 

 try. 



* ' The Tettigidse of North America,' published 

 by special grant of Mrs. Frank G. Logan. Chi- 

 cago. 1902. 188 pages; 11 plates. 



Ch. Ferton, well known for his interesting 

 ethological studies on predaceous Hymen- 

 optera, has added another* to his long list of 

 papers on this subject. It includes a great 

 amount of matter of general biologic interest 

 arranged in a number of chapters. There are 

 notes on the variability of instinct in Hymen- 

 optera; on the odor emitted by certain spe- 

 cies; lists of Hemiptera, Diptera, and Arach- 

 nida gathered by various species as food for 

 their young; on the position of the egg upon 

 the host-insect; on the habit of Odynerus and 

 Eumenes of suspending the egg to the end 

 of a thread; on the means of protection of 

 certain caterpillars against these Hymenop- 

 tera ; and iinally on intelligence and instinct. 



Ferton attributes the curious acts of these 

 insects chiefly to instinct, and declares that 

 acts of intelligence are exceptional with Hy- 

 menoptera. Many that appear as such are 

 only habits that one rarely has the opportunity 

 to observe. To the paper are added two plates 

 illustrative of the nesting habits of certain 

 species. 



It has long been knowii that the larva of 

 Clyihra Jf.-punctata, a case-inhabiting Chrys- 

 omelid beetle, lives in the nests of an ant — 

 Formica rufa. But it was not laiown upon 

 what they fed or how they got into the ant- 

 nest. Mr. Donisthorpe has now settled these 

 points, and in a very interesting articlef he 

 gives an accoirnt of the entire life history of 

 this insect. The adult beetles escape cau- 

 tiously from the ant-nest, and feed on the 

 tender foliage of birch. The female then 

 seeks a shrub overhanging an ant-nest and 

 begins oviposition. She covers the egg with 

 a case made of her own excrement, which, 

 when dried, has much resemblance to a birch 

 bud. The eggs are dropped upon the ant-nest 

 and the ants carry them into their galleries. 

 Here the larva hatches and uses the egg-case 

 for its first protection. It feeds upon the de- 



* ' Xotes dStaohees sur I'instinot des Hymenop- 

 t6res mellif6res et ravisseurs, avec la description 

 de quelques esp6ces,' Ann. Soc. Ent. France, LXX., 

 pp. 83-148, 1901. 



t ' The Life History of Clythra If-punctata,' 

 Trans. Entom. Soc. London, 1902, pp. 11-24, 1 pi., 

 by H. St. John K. Donisthorpe. 



