544 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 431. 



ilar to their own food. As there was but little 

 of this pruinose matter on the host, certainly 

 not enough to support several larvse, he in- 

 clined to the opinion that the Epipyrops 

 larv» might prove to be true parasites. 



Mr. Simpson showed a micro-photograph of 

 sections of the eversible gland of the lo moth 

 larva (Automeris io Fabricius). He stated 

 that, in exceptional specimens, this gland was 

 missing. 



A paper by Mr. August Busck, 'Notes on 

 Brackenridge Clemens's Types of Tineina,' 

 was presented. It consisted of detailed 

 studies of Dr. Clemens's types of Microlepid- 

 optera in the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, resulting in the identification 

 of all but eight of his 200 species. Of these 

 eight, five have been identified with certainty 

 from the descriptions. 



Mr. Ashmead spoke on ' Some Eemarkable 

 New Genera in Cynipoidea,' exhibiting speci- 

 mens of nine new genera of gall-wasps from 

 Brazil and California, and commenting upon 

 their peculiarities. 

 'Dr. Dyar presented the first part of a ' List 

 of Lepidoptera taken at Williams, Arizona, 

 by Messrs. Schwarz and Barber.' The list 

 included 139 species, fifteen of which were 

 described as new. 



A paper by Mr. A. N. Oaudell, 'Notes on 

 the Nomenclature of Blattidse' (cockroaches), 

 dealt with the question of determining the 

 tsnpe species of the Linnsean genus Blatta. 

 The author showed that Latreille, before any 

 of the old species had been removed from 

 the genus, designated Blatta orienialis as the 

 tjrpe. He proposed a new generic name for 

 the ' croton bug,' Phyllodromia being preoccu- 

 pied in the Diptera. 



The three following papers were read by 

 title : ' Neuropteroid Insects from Arizona,' 

 by Nathan Banks ; ' The Genera of the Dip- 

 terous Family Empididse, with Notes and New 

 Species,' by D. W. Coquillett ; ' Myrmeleon- 

 idse from Arizona,' by Holla P. Cuxrie. 



EOLLA P. CURRIE, 



Recording Secretary. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 



At the February meeting papers by Dr. W. 

 A. Cannon, Professor Bashford Dean and 

 Professor H. F. Osborn were presented. 



Dr. Cannon's paper, 'Cytological Studies of 

 Variation in Hybrids,' was based upon his 

 studies of hybrids of cotton plants, and dis- 

 cussed the relation between the maturation 

 mitoses in hybrids and the variation of the 

 hybrid race. Two forms of mitosis occur in 

 fertile hybrids. One of these is the normal 

 type, which occurs in pure races and may 

 be supposed to give rise to reproductive cells 

 of pure descent. This is the form in hybrids 

 between closely related parents (monohybrids), 

 and probably forms the basis for the regular 

 reversion in them. The other type of mitosis 

 is irregular. It is suggested that this kind 

 of maturation mitosis may organize cells of 

 mixed descent, and if found in hybrids from 

 parents rather distantly related, would consti- 

 tute the basis for such mixture of the char- 

 acters of the pure parents as occurs in these 

 hybrids. However, after the characters have 

 become mixed in all possible proportions, and 

 the limit of variation thus reached, normal 

 mitoses probably occur. Thus it appears that 

 the mingling of the characters, as well as the 

 regular reversion in hybride, may have a 

 morphological basis. 



Professor Dean, in a paper entitled ' Past 

 and Present Study of Zoology in Japan,' first 

 reviewed the history of the study of zoology, 

 and then considered the present status of 

 zoological investigation and teaching in that 

 country. With the aid of lantern illustra- 

 tion, descriptions were given of the labora- 

 tories, the fauna available for study, and the 

 prominent Japanese workers. 



Professor Osborn's paper, ' On the Primary 

 Divisions of the Eeptilia into Two Subclasses,' 

 was presented by Dr. Hay. This has been 

 published in full in Science for February 13, 

 1903. 



The third meeting of the year was held 

 at the American Museum of Natural History 

 on March 9, Professor Bashford Dean pre- 

 siding. The following papers were presented : 



