Dec. 1897.] 
Proceedings of the Society. 
205 
Fig. 3. Cyliene picta Drury. Fig. 5. Valgus canaliculatus Fab. 
Fig. 4. Cyllene robinice Forst. Fig. 6. Cryptorhynchus lapathi Gyll. 
All figures are slightly enlarged, and drawn Tom nature by Miss Lydia M. 
Hart, under supervision. 
♦ 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NEW YORK ENTOMOLOGI¬ 
CAL SOCIETY. 
Meeting of April 20, 1897. 
Held at the American Museum of Natural History. 
Vice-President Dr. Love in the chair. Thirteen members present. 
The Publication Committee reported that a lecture, by Prof. L. A. Best, had 
been given and called attention to the next by Dr. E. G. Love, to be held April 24th. 
A vote of thanks was given to Professor Lyman A. Best for his lecture given 
before the Society. 
Mr. Joutel spoke on the breeding habits of beetles. He stated that each species 
always worked in the same way, and that some larvse live only on the sap that they 
cause to flow from their wounding the trees and so renders it impossible to raise them 
in the breeding box. He exhibited a collection of fifty species mostly Longicorns 
bred by him, among which were Callidium antennatuih, four species of Elaphidion , 
Heterachth.es 4-maculatus , Phyton pallidum , Stenosphtnus notatus , Cyllene pictus , X. 
colonus , two species of Euderces, Leptura emarginata, L. lineola , Cryptophorus verru¬ 
cosus, Saperda puncticollis , inoesta , discoidea and obliqua , Elasmocerus terminatus and 
I chile a laticollis. 
Dr. H. G. Dyar spoke on the morphology of the abdominal legs of the Megalo- 
pygidse. He showed that there were two sets of legs of different functions, first, the 
ordinary legs with hooks on abdominal segments 3 to 6 and 10, used for prehension, 
and second, a series of paired soft pads on segments 2-7 used as sucking disks for ad¬ 
hering to smooth surfaces. The structuie is peculiar and proves interesting as lead- 
ing up to the creeping disks of the Eucleidae where the prehensile legs have dis¬ 
appeared and the disk is formed by an extension of these short pads. 
Mr. R. L. Ditmars read a paper entitled “ Spiders,” in which he gave a short 
history of their classification and structure, together with a sketch of their habits and 
uses. He called attention to their poison glands and fangs and compared them with 
those of the poisonous snakes. He illustrated their webs and explained their mode of 
construction. 
Meeting of May 4, 1897. 
Held at the American Museum of Natural History. 
President Palm in the chair. Ten members present. 
A vote thanks was given to Dr. E. G. Love for his lecture on the “Study of 
Insects and their Transformations,” delivered on April 24th. 
