1869.] 319 [Morse. 



other species than those collected in his immediate neighborhood. 

 Had Albers, in his Heliceen, considered the structural charactere 

 of the animal, even the shell alone of some of the species he enu- 

 merates, he would not have been led into bringing together such 

 dissimilar forms as Strohila lahjrintJiica, Helicodiscus lineata, and 

 Hyalina multidentata under the subgenus Gastrodonta, with Helix 

 interna as the type ! or where under Patula he includes such widely- 

 diverging species as Helix pygmcea, exigua and alternata, with H. 

 rotundata as the type. Or again, after mentioning the leading 

 feature of the genus Vertigo, namely, in its being devoid of in- 

 ferior tentacles, he deliberately leaves out the European species, 

 V. minutissima and edentula, and the American species, V. Hoppi 

 and V. decora, placing these species under the genus Pupilla, with 

 P. muscorum as the type. Other examples might be multiplied 

 where, by disregarding structural features, the most heterogeneous 

 forms are brought together. At the same time Albers has recognized 

 clearly the value of certain groups, as for example, Conulus, Macro- 

 cyclis, Vallonia and others, limiting them properly to the few species 

 they naturally represent. He desired to be explicit, because had 

 this not been corrected, it would appear that he had retracted his 

 former views. 



Mr. Morse then proceeded to point out some of the leading char- 

 acters of our Helices, representing on the blackboard the various 

 forms of the exserted animals, with their peculiar armature of lingual 

 teeth and buccal plates. 



Section of Entomology. February 24, 1869. 

 Mr. L. L. Thaxter in the chair. Fifteen members jDresent. 



Mr. C. S. Minot read the followmg description of the male 

 of Hesj)eria Metea Scudd. : 



Mr. Scudder, in his " List of the New England Butterflies," pub- 

 lished in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. HI, p. ICl, 

 describes the female of Hesperia Metea. I have in my collection a 

 male and female of this species, taken by myself in Dorchester, Mass., 



