1890 .] 
579 
[Scudder. 
A very striking peculiarity is found in the American Pentatomidse 
as a whole, whether Cydnida or Pentatomida. In living forms 
the vast majority have a long scutellum reaching beyond the mid- 
dle of the abdomen, and have the tip produced forming a parallel- 
sided apical lobe. In the American tertiary forms, so far as yet 
known with only a single exception, no such apical lobe exists, 
but the scutellum ends with an angular apex, sometimes a little 
rounded, but the sides perfectly straight and entire, at least in the 
apical half ; besides which, or perhaps partly as a consequence, 
the scutellum does not reach further than, sometimes does not at- 
tain, the middle of the abdomen. It has seemed necessary there- 
fore to establish a considerable number of new generic groups to 
embrace these remarkable forms. To judge from the illustrations 
given by Heer, the same thing would seem to be true of at least a 
few of the European tertiary Pentatomida, especially of those from 
Radoboj, and it would be very desirable to institute direct compar- 
isons between specimens from the two continents. 
In the general remarks under the Heteroptera as a whole, atten- 
tion was called to the close relation which existed between the pro- 
portional abundance (in the number of specific forms) of the four 
principal families of Heteroptera in tertiary times and the same in 
the existing fauna of the selfsame region. A further illustration, 
but even more exaggerated, appears by using the same guides in 
comparing the relative numbers of the Cydnida and Pentatomida, 
the only two subfamilies of Pentatomidse known to exist in our 
tertiary deposits and so capable of comparison. In Distant’s work, 
the Cydnida number about one-sixth of the total number of Cydni- 
da and Pentatomida ; in Uhler’s general list one-seventh ; in his 
western list one-fourth ; while the increasing number thus shown 
in the region where the fossils occur is vastly exaggerated in their 
relative representation in the rocks, this being two-thirds of the 
whole. 
Prof. F. W. Putnam then gave an account of explorations of the 
Indian burial-place at Winthrop, Mass., and showed some of the 
specimens found during the day. 
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes called the attention of the Society to a 
new method of printing colored cuts in the text especially adapted 
to works on natural history. 
The following names were presented for Associate Membership : 
