February, '15] 



CURRENT NOTES 



159 



The apparatus used by the Bureau of Entomology in the investigation of bees 

 in winter at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, during the past two win- 

 ters has been moved and is now installed in the laboratory at Drummond, Md. 

 A small room has been fitted up as a ''bee cellar" in the basement, in which the temper- 

 ature changes will be slow, the room being completely surrounded by planer shavings 

 one foot thick. The wiring for the temperature readings is now being installed, 

 thermo-couples being used for this purpose. The special scales for taking hourly 

 weighings of a colony of bees during winter have been installed in a room on the first 

 floor of the laboratory and arranged to weigh a colony in the basement. 



D. L. Van Dine, of the Bureau of Entomology, has returned to Washington from 

 his field station at Mound, La. During the season he made a careful study of the 

 relation of malaria to agriculture. In this work detailed information was obtained 

 regarding the incidence of malaria and the time loss in each of seventy-four families, 

 A study was also made of mosquito density in the various classes of habitations and 

 the breeding places in the immediate vicinity of the houses were determined. An 

 experiment was performed on a considerable scale in removing the cans, bottles and 

 other receptacles in the vicinity of the houses, and filling disused wells and old cis- 

 terns to determine the effect of such measures on mosquito density. Mr. Van Dine 

 presented a paper on his work on malarial mosquitoes at the meeting of the Southern 

 Medical Association at Richmond, Va., on November 9. 



At the Boston Domestic Science and Pure Food Exposition held at Mechanics 

 Building, Boston, Mass., during the month of October, a large Government ex- 

 hibit was installed, showing the different activities of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. In connection with this exhibit a special display was prepared by the 

 gypsy moth branch of the Bureau of Entomology. This included maps showing the 

 infested district which is under quarantine on account of the gypsy moth and the 

 brown-tail moth, and the areas where parasites have been colonized and recovered 

 were also illustrated. Several trays containing five parasites breeding on gypsy 

 moth eggs and a display of live Calosoma beetles were also included. Posters, and 

 post cards, illustrating the gypsy moth and the brown-tail moth, together with some 

 of their imported natural enemies, were distributed. A large number of visitors 

 manifested a great deal of interest in the exhibit. Mr. R. Wooldridge, who is sta- 

 tioned at the Gypsy Moth Laboratory, Melrose Highlands, Mass., was in charge 

 of the gypsy moth exhibit. 



The Entomological Society of America elected the following persons as honorary 

 fellows at its Philadelphia meeting: John Henry Comstock, Charles J. S. Bethune, 

 Charles Henry Fernald, and Eugene Amandus Schwarz. The following were elected 

 as fellows: Nathan Banks, J. Chester Bradley, W. E. Britton, C. T. Brues, H. T. 

 Fernald, Glenn W. Herrick, J. S. Hine, O. A. Johannsen, A. L. Melander, A. P. Morse, 

 P. J. Parrott, Edith M. Patch, A. L. Quaintance, J. A. G. Rehn, W. A. Riley, Annie 

 Trumbull Slosson, E. M. Walker, H. F. Wickham, and E. B. WiUiamson. Dr. E. S. 

 Van Dyke was elected as a local secretary to plan and look after the summer meet- 

 ing of the society to be held in San Francisco in 1915. The executive committee 

 recommended the preparation of a serial pubKcation to be issued under the name of 

 the Thomas Say Foundation, which will include catalogues of North American in- 

 sects and monographs and memoirs of the same. A preUminary editorial committee 

 consisting of J. M. Aldrich, Nathan Banks, Morgan Hebard, A. D. MacGillivray, 

 and E. P. Van Duzee was appointed to look after the foundation of this serial. The 

 society added one hundred and nine new members to its membership list. 



