Burgess.] 
156 
[March 2, 
the anterior branch runs clown farther, and is distinct from the 
posterior most of the way, and separates gradually from it and 
runs forward. The aortal chamber is much shorter than in the 
Hawk-moth. 
In a Zygaenid (Alypia octornaculata), the posterior branch is 
straighter than in the Noctuid, and the chamber at the junction of 
the two branches is short, vertical and of no greater diameter than 
either branch. The single Geometric! examined (Anisoptery x ver- 
nata), closely resembled Agrotis except that the branches were 
more widely separated along the parallel portion of their course. 
I have not examined any species of Bombycidae. 
In a Tortricid, Retinia frustrana Scudder MS., the moth 
which is destroying the pine woods (Pinus rigida) of Nantucket, 
the aorta runs diagonally up to the mesoscutellar suture (see fig. 5) 
bends downward and then forward to the oesophagus, all trace of 
the aortal chamber, or of any node between the two aortal 
branches, being obsolete. 
If we except the peculiar course of the anterior branch in the 
Hawk-moth we have, therefore, a gradual series from the butter- 
flies downward. In the former a distinct horizontal aortal cham- 
ber is present ; in the higher moths a vertical node replaces the 
chamber, and this vanishes in the lower moths. 
General Meeting. March 2, 1881. 
The President, Mr. S. H. Scudder, in the chair. Twenty-five 
persons present. 
Mr. Lucien Carr read a paper on Sun Worship among North 
American Indians. 
Dr. M. E. Wadsworth discussed the history of the Prepaleo- 
zoic Geology in New Brunswick, calling attention to some 
inaccuracies in the published accounts. 
