300 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 88. 



scribed from America. It was, therefore, 

 with the greatest surprise and pleasure that 

 I detected some galls produced by a coccid, 

 on the leaves of Quercus wrightii at Pinos 

 Altos, New Mexico, on July 8th. The galls 

 were quite abundant and are situated on the 

 midrib ou the under side of the leaf, at Or 

 near the base ; their shape is something like 

 that of a hazel-nut, but flatter on one side, 

 with the midrib continued to form a ridge, 

 terminating in a more or less pointed apical 

 -crest. Frequently two galls will be com- 

 bined in one, in which case there are two 

 pointed crests. On the upper side of the 

 leaf is observed a narrow slit, opening 

 into the cavity of the gall. The cavity 

 of the gall is low-conical and is filled by the 

 dark-colored female coccid. 



The coccid, aside from the fact of its form- 

 ing a gall, is extremely interesting. It be- 

 longs to the Idiococcinse, a group of sixteen 

 known species, all confined to Australia, ex- 

 cept one in the Sandwich Islands and one 

 in Japan. It is closely allied to the Aus- 

 tralian forms, the larva being very like that 

 of Crocidocysta, lately described by Eiibsaa- 

 men, while the adult resembles certain 

 species of Maskell's genus SjjhcBrococcus. It 

 represents, however, a new genus, which I 

 <3all Olliffiella, in memory of Mr. Sidney 

 Olliff, whose lamented death occurred just 

 as he was about to publish on the gall-mak- 

 ing coccids of Australia. The genus Olliffiella 

 will be known by its adult female having 

 very small but perfectly distinct and well- 

 formed legs and antennse ; the antennse re- 

 sembling those of Coccus, six-jointed, the 

 joints after the third successively shorter ; 

 the femora very stout, semi-circular in out- 

 line, the tarsi distinctly two-jointed (a rare 

 but not unique character in coccids), the 

 four digitules all filiform, with small round 

 knobs; the skin of the dorsal surface is 

 thickly beset with glands, mostly double or 

 figure-of-eight. The larva after being 

 treated with potash is reddish-purple, with 



the legs, antennae and spines pale yellowish. 

 There are rows of blunt dorsal spines, as in 

 various Coccinse. The anal ring has dis- 

 tinct but very small bristles ; the antennae 

 are six-jointed, joints 1, 3 and 6 equal in 

 length and longest, 2, 4 and 5 equal and 

 shortest. The caudal setae are fairly long. 

 The species may be termed Olliffiella cristi- 

 cola, n. sp. At some later date it is in- 

 tended to give a detailed and illustrated ac- 

 count of it. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



Mesilla, N, M., August 3, 1896. 



SOCIETY FOB THE PE03I0TI0N OF ENGINEER- 

 ING EDUCATION. 



The fourth annual meeting of this Society 

 was held at Buffalo, IS". Y., on August 20, 

 21, 22. Five sessions were held and twenty- 

 one papers were read and discussed. On 

 August 22d there was an excursion to 

 Magara Falls and Lewiston, under the 

 auspices of the Engineer's Society of West- 

 ern New York. The following were the 

 ofiicers of the meeting : President, Mans- 

 field Merriman, of Lehigh University ; Sec- 

 retary, C. Frank Allen, of Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology; Treasurer, J. J. 

 Flather, of Purdue University. The open- 

 ing address of President Merriman was 

 published in the last issue of Science. 



This report of the Committee on Eequire- 

 ments for Admission to Engineering Col- 

 leges was presented by the Chairman, Prof. 

 Marvin. This report gives in full the data 

 from both engineering colleges and prepara- 

 tory schools, collected by the committee 

 during the two years of its labors, as also a 

 careful analysis of the same with conclu- 

 sions and recommendations. It was ad- 

 vised that a qualitative uniformity seemed 

 desirable in regard to subjects for admission, 

 and a list of such subjects was presented. 

 The reports will be printed in full and 

 opinions thereon be requested from the 350 

 institutions which have furnished the data. 



