76 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1098 



existed. It has not been reported from there since, 

 although the locality is often visited by entomol- 



" Chrysomyza wnea, a fly common in the Orient 

 and breeding especially in manure, is of particular 

 interest on account of its very recent appearance 

 within the United States. It was first found in 

 August of this year and so far only in one local- 

 ity in' Louisiana. It appears to have been estab- 

 lished in Brazil for some time and very likely oc- 

 curs in intervening territory, although we have 

 no information on this latter point. 



"Another cosmopolite of tropical and semi- 

 tropical distribution is Miliohiella laoteipennis, a 

 minute fly of the agromyzid series. This also, 

 there is good reason to believe, is a manure breeder. 



"A limited number of species are disseminated 

 through both temperate and tropical regions. The 

 house fly, stable fly and certain species of Droso- 

 ■phila will at once come to mind as faithful com- 

 panions of man everywhere. Most remarkable, 

 there is in this category a minute and very frail 

 fly of the family Psyehodidffi, Psychoda alternata. 

 The flight of this mere mote is exceedingly weak 

 and it clings to sheltered situations. It breeds 

 particularly in sewage and often occurs in sewers 

 in countless numbers. This fly has been received 

 or reported from Europe, North Africa, the United 

 States, Mexico, Guiana, Chile, Hawaii, India and 

 Australia, and no doubt it occurs whenever a suffi- 

 ciently dense population supplies the requisite con- 

 ditions. ' ' 



The second paper was by Alex. Wetmore, 

 "Notes on the Habits of the Ihick Hawk." Mr. 

 Wetmore said: "In observations made on the 

 Bear Eiver marshes, Great Salt Lake, Utah, it was 

 found that duck hawks do much of their hunting 

 for food in early morning. Later in the day they 

 pTiTSue any flying bird merely for the pleasure of 

 the chase, seldom kUling. ' ' Several incidents il- 

 lustrating this were related. 



The last paper of the evening was by Elmer D. 

 Merrill, "Geographic Eelationships of the Philip- 

 pine Flora." Mr. Merrill based his conclusions 

 after the examination of large numbers of living 

 and herbarium specimens from the Philippine Is- 

 lands, the Malayan Archipelago, the Asiatic main- 

 land, Celebes, New Guinea, Australia, etc. The 

 speaker discussed, in a general way, the geographic 

 position of the Philippine Archipelago with refer- 

 ence to surrounding land areas and the general 

 character of the flora, calling attention to the fact 

 that the vegetation is dominantly Malayan. The 

 probable condition of the vegetation before the 



advent of man in the Archipelago was a continu- 

 ous primeval forest. Hence in discussing geo- 

 graphic relationships of the flora, the vegetation 

 of the settled areas and open country generally 

 must be excluded from consideration as present- 

 ing special alliances. Likewise the coastal vegeta- 

 tion must be ignored, the species being practically 

 all disseminated by ocean currents. Serially the 

 speaker discussed the striking Asiatic elements in 

 the flora of north central Luzon, largely conti- 

 nental and especially Himalayan foothill types; 

 the weak special alliances of the Sunda group of 

 islands, especially Borneo; the remarkably strong 

 evidences of relationship with the Molucca Is- 

 lands, especially Celebes, to the south; New 

 Guinea; the numerous Australian (Queensland) 

 types; New Zealand, and Polynesia. The botan- 

 ical evidence points to weak connections in past 

 ages with Borneo and the Sunda Islands, but to 

 strong or longer continued connections with the 

 islands to the south and southeast. Without such 

 conections to the south and southeast it is prac- 

 tically impossible to explain the strong special 

 alliances of the flora to that of the above re- 

 gions. That the Philippines and the islands to 

 the south and southeast may have at one time 

 formed the eastern boundary of an aneient con- 

 tinent seems to be probable from the present flor- 

 istic elements found in the archipelago. It is 

 clear, however, from the remarkably high percent- 

 age of endemism as to species (over 50 per cent.) 

 that the islands have been separated long enough 

 to allow for the development of a characteristic 

 flora as to species, but not long enough to de- 

 velop many distinct genera, the percentage of 

 endemism as to genera being but a fraction of 

 one per cent. 



The speaker called attention to the fact that 

 conclusions regarding special alliances of the 

 Philippine flora may be invalidated as explora- 

 tion progresses, as the floras of Sumatra, Borneo, 

 the Moluccas, and New Guinea, are, comparatively 

 speaking, very imperfectly known, in the case of 

 each probably not more than one third of the 

 species being known, and in some cases even less. 



In the discussion which followed Mr. Wm. 

 Palmer, Dr. Stejneger, Dr. Lyon, and Dl*. Bartsch 

 discussed the geographic distribution of the Phil- 

 ippine birds, reptiles, mammals and moUusks, which 

 in many respects showed a lack of correlation 

 with the flora, though agreeing in many essentials. 



The society adjourned at 10:30 p.m. 



M. W. Lyon, Jr., 

 Secording Secretary 



