4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Jan. %\st. 

 Mr. Lea, President, in the Chair. 



Forty-four members present. 



The report of the Biological Department for the present month was 

 read. 



On report of a Committee of the Biological Department, the paper en- 

 titled " Remarks on errors in the Anatomical Diagnosis of Cancer, by 

 J. J. Woodward, M. D.," was recommended for publication in a Medical 

 Journal. 



On report of the respective Committees the following papers were 

 ordered to be published in the Journal of the Academy : 



" Reflections upon the nature of the temporary star of the year 1572, 

 an application of the Nebular Hypothesis, by Alexander Wilcox, M. D." 



" Descriptions of New Cretaceous and Eocene Shells of Mississippi 

 and Alabama, also with notes on Eocene fossil shells, by T. A. Conrad." 



" Descriptions of new species of Fossils, probably Triassic, from Vir- 

 ginia, by W. M. Gabb." 



" Descriptions of new species of Cretaceous fossils, by W. M. Gabb." 



" Additional new species of Fossils to a paper by T. A. Conrad." 



And the following in the Proceedings : 



Contributions to American Lepidopterology. No. 3. 



BY BRACKENRIDGE CLEMENS, M. D. 



TltfEINA. 



The plan of these papers will hereafter be changed, and no diagnosis 

 of genera will be given, except when there is doubt respecting the identity of 

 the European and American groups, and when the genera are new. The in- 

 tention of giving some conception of the systematic arrangement of the group 

 Tineina will therefore be abandoned, and the subsequent papers be confined 

 simply to the description of species. I find myself compelled to adopt this 

 course, in consequence of perceiving, as I advance in the recognition of generic 

 groups, that the diagnoses of the families heretofore cited are too limited, and 

 that, in order to represent my conception of these groups, I shall be obliged 

 to make them more comprehensive. These changes, together with generic 

 synopses of the families, will be best treated in a monograph of the Tineina, 

 which will be undertaken as soon as the collection of the writer represents, 

 with some degree of completeness, the genera found in our country. In order 

 that the accomplishment of this may not be too long delayed, contributions of 

 specimens are respectfully solicited from collectors, either in accordance with 

 the call from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, in the Report for 

 1858, or the request made at the present time. Contributions may be sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, or to myself, but, in the latter case, the charges 

 for carriage must be prepaid ; and should the contributor desire it, a suite of 

 named specimens will be returned to him. Full directions for the collection 

 and preservation of Lepidoptera are contained in the Smithsonian Report for 

 1858, and may be had on application to the Secretary of the Institution. 



Coleofhora Zeller. 

 Stalk of antenna clothed with erect scales to the middle. 

 C. coruscipennella . Labial palpi and head bronzy green. Antenna?, 



[Jan. 



