Oct., '04] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. ^87 



locality, a most unusual one for a species, whose normal habi- 

 tat is the inner margin of ocean beaches. It is probable that 

 at some remote period the beach line had extended inland to 

 this point and as the waters receded this colony of beetles 

 remained. 



February ^, igo^. — Eighteen persons present, the President 

 in the chair. 



Mr. Wm. Beutenmiiller was elected a member. Drs. Call 

 and Love were elected members of the Executive Committee. 



Discussion of Dr. Dyar's " List of North American Lepid- 

 optera : " Messrs. Smith, Call, Franck and Weeks pronounced 

 it, despite minor omissions, a monument indicative of the ad- 

 vancement of Lepidopterological science. Mr. Weeks com- 

 pared Dr. Morris' check list, published forty years ago, which 

 contained 1800 species, and his prediction that the number 

 would eventually reach 3500, with the present work, which 

 contained even 6000, with certainly many species yet to be 

 added. 



Prof. Smith presented a paper upon " Fossil Insects," illus- 

 trated by lantern slides, showing fossil remains of insects of 

 all orders occurring in various strata of the tertiary and carbo- 

 niferous ages. Insects at these remote periods were already 

 well advanced in structure as well as of unusual size. 



A meeting of the Entomological Section of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, was held May 26th. In the 

 absence of the Director and Vice- Director, Dr. D. M. Castle 

 presided. Ten persons were present. Dr. Skinner spoke of 

 the peculiar habitat and geographical distribution of Pyrgus 

 ceiitaurecE, and said a knowledge of its food plant and life his- 

 tory would be of great interest. Mr. Frank Haimbach exhi- 

 bited some recent collections of Microlepidoptera. Mr. R. 

 Godfrey reported taking Elater sayi and Sphceridium scara- 

 bcBoides in the city limits. He was the first person to report 

 the latter species in New Jersey. Dr. Calvert exhibited some 

 rare and interesting Odonata. He said Mr. McLachlan had 

 described a genus and species from an unknown locality. A 

 specimen had subsequently been received in France from Chi- 



