512 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 587. 



the tropics, lias advanced the opinion, which 

 will seem highly revolutionary to most per- 

 sons, that the low death rates in the cities on 

 our northern Pacific coast result from the 

 cloudiness of those places. Dr. Woodruff 

 holds that races are colored in a way to resist 

 the effects of too much sunlight, and that the 

 white race is fitted, not for the most sunny 

 latitudes, but for the least sunny ones. Fur- 

 ther, he believes that the blonds are gradually 

 eliminated through greater susceptibility to 

 disease in the lighter parts of a country, while 

 the brunettes survive, being stronger and less 

 injuriously affected. 



NOTES. 



Those who are interested in the very in- 

 genious cipher code used by our Weather 

 Bureau in the transmission of its observations 

 will find an account of ' Weather Bureau 

 Cipher Codes,' by Professor E. B. Garriott, in 

 the Monthly Weather Review for October, 

 1905. 



Professor W. H. Pickering has recently 

 published a paper on ' Martian Meteorology ' 

 in the Annuls of the Harvard College Ob- 

 servatory, Vol. LIII., No. VIII. In the 

 Monthly Weather Review for October, 1905, 

 Professor Cleveland Abbe gives a brief sum- 

 mary of the investigations on this subject. 



It has been noted that when hailstones are 

 melting away in a pail of water they end their 

 career by giving up a large bubble of air 

 which had evidently been enclosed, under 

 great pressure, in the white snow at the center 

 of the hailstones. Observations of this fact, 

 and also of the size of the cavity that appears 

 to contain the air and of the size of the bubble 

 as it ascends through the water, are desired by 

 the editor of the Monthly Weather Review, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Das Wetter for December, 1905, contains 

 the results of an investigation of the value of 

 radiation from the sky, carried out by W. 

 Gallenkamp by means of an apparatus de- 

 signed by himself for this work. This subject 

 has received but little attention as yet. 



E. DeC. Ward. 



JUXTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 Enderlein has found a curious wingless fly 

 in Germany, which has much resemblance 

 both in shape and movements to a Thrips.' 

 He refers it to the Bibionidse. It has halters, 

 and rather large long legs; only one female 

 specimen is known, and doubtless the male 

 will be winged. 



Mr. S. Graenicher has investigated the 

 larval habits of several parasitic bees and 

 obtained some highly interesting results.^ In 

 the three cases of Btelis with Alcidamea, 

 Cwlioxys with Megachile, and Epeolus with 

 Melissodes he finds that the parasitic larva is 

 provided with sharp mandibles and an aggres- 

 sive temperament, so that it attacks any larva 

 it meets in the nest, even of its own kind. In 

 some cases the larva loses its sharp jaws at a 

 later moult, and thereafter feeds on the honey 

 and pollen stored by the host-bee. The larva 

 of the host-bee has blunt jaws, and though 

 often larger than its enemy, never attacks it. 



Mr. Carl Hartman is the author of an 

 interesting paper on the habits of some Texan 

 solitary wasps." He has watched, more or less 

 thoroughly, the habits of twenty-eight species, 

 belonging to various families. Several species 

 are shown to vary in the method of making 

 and closing the nest, and in stinging and 

 carrying their prey. Some species are 

 extremely fastidious in choice of prey, but 

 Microbemhex will take any insect, dead or 

 alive, to provision her nest. He considers 

 that the primary purpose of the sting is to 

 paralyze the prey, but in some cases it 

 also kills them. In finding their nests 

 he believes that these wasps are guided by 

 sight, and a memory of landmarks; and he 

 adduces some evidence to show that varia- 

 tion in habits is proportionate to the physical 



' ' Thripsomorpha paludieola, n. gen. n. sp., eine 

 iieue deutselie fliigellose Fliige,' Zool. Jahrhiicher, 

 Abt. Syst., XXI., pp. 447-450, 1 pi., 4 figs., 1905. 



- ' Some Observations on the Life Histoi'y and 

 Habits of Parasitic Bees,' Bull. Wise. Nat. Hist. 

 Soc, III., pp. 153-167, 1 pi., 1905. 



' ' Observations on the Habits of Some Solitary 

 Wasps of Texas,' Bull. Univ. Texas, No. 65, pp. 

 72, 4 pis., 1905. 



