July 17, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



83 



Dr. Dyar read ' A Note on Pyrausta 

 ochosalis Fitch MS.,' a pyralid moth, showing 

 that Fitch's species is distinct from Pyrausta 

 generosa G. & R. He exhibited, further, a 

 living larva of Hemileuca, electra Wright, 

 from southern California, one of the rarest 

 of our saturnian moths. Dr. Dyar presented, 

 also, a description of a new genus and species 

 of moths belonging to the family Tortricidse. 



Mr. Ashmead exhibited a ceropalid (pompi- 

 lid) wasp taken in Texas in the nest of the 

 harvesting ant, Pogonomyrmex harbatus 

 Smith. It constitutes a new genus and 

 species. 



Mr. Warner showed a proctotrypoid hymen- 

 opterous parasite found attached by its jaws 

 to a specimen of grasshopper in the National 

 Museum collection. It is a species of the 

 genus Scelio, the members of which are para- 

 sites of grasshoppers' eggs, and have a habit 

 of attaching themselves to gravid female 

 grasshoppers and waiting for them to oviposit. 



Dr. Hopkins reported some observations he 

 had made recently in North Carolina upon 

 (1) certain dipterous galls found on pine at 

 Asheville, and (2) the damage inflicted upon 

 girdled cypresses, sweet gums and black gums 

 by ambrosia beetles. 



Mr. Heidemann exhibited a specimen of 

 the aradid bug, Neuroctenus pseudonemus 

 Bcrgroth, collected at Bladensburg, Md., un- 

 der bark, and not previously recorded from 

 the vicinity of the District of Columbia. 



Mr. Banks showed a specimen of the 

 syrphid fly, Ceria willistonii Kahl, reared 

 from the puparium at East End, Virginia. 

 It is new to that locality. The adult resembles 

 a fly of the family Conopida;, or some wasp. 

 He exhibited, also, two rare ortalid flies which 

 resemble ants in appearance, Myrmecomyia 

 myrmecoides Loew and Odontomera ferruginea 

 Macquart. 



Dr. Howard described some recent experi- 

 ments carried on in Brazil for the purpose of 

 testing tlie correctness of the conclusions of 

 the U. S. Army Commission in regard to 

 yellow fever. These experiments have been 

 generally accepted as conclusive, and have 

 removed all incredulity as to the fact that 



mosquitoes play a part in the transmission of 

 yellow fever. 



The following papers were presented : ' A 

 Revision of the Boreal-American Species of 

 Nonagria Oclis,' a genus of noctuid moths, by 

 John B. Smith; 'Some Remarks on Genera 

 in the Mutillidaj ' (sand wasps), by William 

 H. Ashmead ; ' A Review of the North Ameri- 

 can Species of the Lepidopterous Family An- 

 throceridffi' (Zygajnidfe), by Harrison G. Dyar. 



ROLLA P. CURRIE, 



Recording Secretary. 



DlSCUfiSlOX AXD CORRESPOyDEXCE. 

 THE GRAND GULF FORMATION. 



To THE Editor of Science: In response to 

 the clear and courteous exposition of their 

 present ideas of what constitutes the Grand 

 Gulf formation, by Messrs. Smith and Aldrich 

 (Science, July 3, pp. 20-26), I may say: (1) 

 That I withdraw the opinion that it is not 

 new; now that I understand it clearly, I re- 

 gard it as an absolutely new view; (2) that 

 so far as observed facts are concerned I am 

 far from wishing to be understood as question- 

 ing the existence of a deposit of unfossiliferous 

 clay which contains irrecognizable traces of 

 vegetable matter, which has a wide distri- 

 bution as claimed by these gentlemen, and lies 

 above the Chesapeake Mioce'ne and below the 

 so-called Lafayette, from which it is not 

 separated, where I have observed it, by any 

 unconformity or characteristic peculiarity. I 

 would recall the fact that I have personally 

 no knowledge of the ' Grand Gulf ' except 

 what I have derived from such excellent au- 

 thorities as Wailcs, Ililgard, Smith, Langdon, 

 Professor G. D. Harris, Miss Maiiry, etc., from 

 their published writings and observations in 

 the field. My office has been, after making 

 field studies of the fossiliferous Tertiary, es- 

 pecially the Chattahoochee and Chipola sec- 

 tions, to endeavor to correlate with horizons 

 of known age in the marine scries, the fresh- 

 or brackish-water formations almost destitute 

 of fossils, laid down about the margin of the 

 Mississippi embayment during a long period 

 of Tertiary time, which have been named by 

 the geologists above mentioned, and to which, 

 80 far, no satisfactory key has been found. 



