December 27, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



1009 



TdE LAS VEGAS SCIENCE CLUB. 



The usual monthly meeting was held Novem- 

 ber 12, Mr. Cockerell briefly reviewed the 

 work of the members during the past summer. 

 At the end of June the top of the Las Vegas 

 Kange (11,000 feet) was revisited, and a con- 

 siderable collection was made, including a 

 number of species of insects new to New 

 Mexico. The insects of this collection are now 

 being recorded in Psyche. Mr. Cockerell ex- 

 hibited two stone spear-heads, which he found 

 on the top of the Las Vegas Range. Seven 

 members of the club spent a part of the sum- 

 mer on the coast of California, where special 

 attention was paid to the Mollusca. Mrs. Cora 

 "W. Hewett exhibited a series of shells which 

 she had collected at Coronado, Point Loma and 

 La Jolla. Mr. Cockerell exhibited the internal 

 shell of Tethys {Neaplysia) ritteri, a new species 

 which he found at San Pedro, and named after 

 the director of the University of California 

 Marine Station at that place. This T. ritteri 

 was about 21 cm. long, and differed from T. 

 Californica in wholly lacking the bars of white 

 and dark brown on the inner surface of the 

 swimming lobes, these parts being of a pale seal 

 green ; it also differed in having oblique, flame- 

 like, blood-red markings on the sides of the 

 body. Outside of the Mollusca, some study 

 was made of the insects of the California coast, 

 and several new species of bees were obtained. 

 Mrs. Cockerell found at San Pedro the hydroid 

 Aglaophenia octocarpa Nutting, new to the 

 United States. 



Mrs. W. P. Cockerell described how she had 

 succeeded in obtaining the eggs of Argynnis 

 nitocris nigrocserulea at Beulah. The larvse 

 which hatched from them had gone into hiber- 

 nation without feeding. A communication by 

 Mr. Cockerell and Miss Mary Cooper on the 

 genus Ashmunella was presented, and a series 

 of the shells was exhibited. The most inter- 

 esting was a new species, proposed to be called 

 Ashmunella antiqua, found fossil in the Pleisto- 

 cene beds of Las Vegas, N. M. It resembled 

 in most respects A. thomsoniana, but wholly 

 lacked the parietal tooth. Miss Ada Springer 

 exhibited the vertebra of a bison which she had 

 found in the charcoal zone of the Las Vegas 

 (Arroyo Pecos) Pleistocene. 



Mr. Emerson Atkins showed a series of draw- 

 ings of the mouth-parts of wasps and bees. 

 The series indicated an evolution from the type 

 with six-jointed maxillary palpi and four-jointed 

 labial palpi, the joints in each case about equal 

 in length, to forms with five-, four-, three- or 

 two-jointed maxillary palpi, and labial palpi 

 with the joints much elongated and very un- 

 equal. It was remarked that the maxillae in- 

 creased in size, while their palpi diminished. 

 Mr. John McNary communicated a series of 

 drawings illustrating the venation of the mid- 

 dle of the tegmina in various genera of grass- 

 hoppers, viz., Irimerofropis, Leprus, Arphia and 

 Dissosteira. It was possible to recognize the 

 same veins as are found in the upper wings of 

 Lepidoptera, but whereas in the Lepidoptera 

 they are very constant and very useful for ge- 

 neric classification, in the grasshoppers, which 

 are more primitive insects, they are found to be 

 extraordinarily variable. If one were to de- 

 pend on the venation for generic characters in 

 Orthoptera to the same degree that one does in 

 Lepidoptera, Trimerotropis laticincta, for ex- 

 ample, could be split into three genera. 



T. D. A. C. 



THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



The first regular meeting of the Texas Acad- 

 emy of Science for the present academic year 

 was held in the chemical lecture room of the 

 University of Texas, at Austin, on the evening 

 of October 26, 1901, when Professor J. C. 

 Nagle, of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 

 lege of Texas, the newly elected president of 

 the Academy, presented his inaugural address 

 on 'The Influence of Applied Science.' 



''My purpose," he said, "is to touch upon a 

 few only of the general features of the world's 

 progress, in which applied science has been an 

 aid not only to material development, but to re- 

 searches in pure science as well, and to sug- 

 gest, if possible, some means by which the 

 workers in applied science may be brought to 

 contribute more largely towards advancing the 

 purposes and aims of the Texas Academy of 

 Science." 



Continuing, the speaker said: " If the re- 

 corded history of the world's progress in 

 thought and material prosperity for the last 



