REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of the 16tli volume of the Contributions, is entitled "Results of 

 meteorological observations at Marietta, Ohio, between 1826 and 1859," 

 by Dr. S. P. Hildreth. An account of this was given in the last report 

 under the head of meteorology, and copies of it liave been distributed 

 Co the meteorological observers. It contains 46 quarto pages, and is 

 illustrated with 14 woodcuts. 



Several parts of the miscellaneous collections have also been published. 

 The first is a catalogue of the Orthoptera or upright winged insects 

 of North America, described previous to 1867, prepared for the Smith- 

 sonian Institution by Samuel H. Scudder, of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History. This work is intended as an index in which the student 

 can find a reference to every published account of any species of 

 Orthoptera found on the continent of North America or in the West 

 Indies, together with the exact names given to the insects in the origi- 

 nal descriptions. The publication and distribution of this list will assist 

 the author himself in obtaining materials for a contemplated elaborate 

 monograph on the same subject, while it will tend to advance science 

 by calling attention to this interesting but heretofore little studied 

 order of insects ; an order which includes, however, among others, the 

 cockroach and the grasshopper — the one so prejudicial to domestic com- 

 fort, and the other so often subversive of the hopes of the farmer. The 

 preparation of this work is a gratuitous contribution by Mr. Scudder to 

 the branch of natural history in which he is specially interested. It con- 

 sists of 89 octavo pages, and will form a part of the eighth volume of mis- 

 cellaneous collections. 



The next publication of the year 1868 is a volume forming part 

 four of a series of monographs of the Diptera, or two- winged insects 

 of North America, by Baron R. Osten Sacken. Parts one and two 

 of the same series previously published by the Institution were prepared 

 by Dr. H. Loew, of Prussia, and the third part is in an advanced state 

 of preparation by the same author. This volume contains the first 

 part of a monograph of the North American Tiimlidce, the representa- 

 tive of which is known as the crane-fly, an insect whose larvse are 

 extremely destructive to crops of various kinds, devouring the roots of 

 cereals and pasture grasses, and almost all the plants ordinarily culti- 

 vated in fields or gardens. The ground covered by the author in this 

 monograph embraces all the known North American species, exclusive 

 of those of the West Indies and Mexico. The principal areas from 

 which the specimens described have been obtained are the environs of 

 the cities of Washington and of New York, but the author also made 

 collections during occasional excursions to different parts of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, and New England, besides receiving contributions from 

 other parts of this continent. Thus, as far as the more common species 

 are concerned, the middle and northern States may be said to be tolera- 

 bly well represented in this volume, the regions west of the Allegha- 



