During the past month (July) I have endeavored to obtain the eggs and the larva of some of the butterflies common near.this place (Hunter), in the catskill Mountains, and have met with considerable success.

The most interesting discovery was that of the food plant Phyciodes tharos, which had baffled my endeavors for the past four or five years during which time Mr. Edwards and myself have tried a great number of plants without avail.

From the condition of an hypothesis the glacial epoch has been elevated into that of a theory by the explanations it has afforded to a certain class of geological phenomena. The present paper endeavors to show that certain zoological facts are consistent with the presence, during past times, of a vast progressive field of ice, which, in its movement from north to south, gradually extended over large portions of the North American continent. These facts, in the present instance, are furnished by a study of our Lepidoptera, or certain kinds of butterflies and moths now inhabiting the United States and adjacent territories.

In accordance with the predictions made at the time of its first appearance in the immediate Mississippi Valley, the Colorado potato beetle continues to extend its area of distribution. It has during the last and present seasons reached the Atlantic Coast of the Middle States, and is preparing an invasion in mass of the maritime parts of New England, which will soon be overrun with the same ease with which it has conquered the Western and Middle States. Meanwhile the farmers are anxiously inquiring for means of destroying the invader.

Mr. George Norman has sent me specimens of a species of Agrotis allied to tessellata, which were taken at orillia, I propose to call the species Agrotis vennipellis. The male antennae are brush-like, eyes naked, all the tibiae spinose. The thorax and tegulae are dark brown; collar with a blackish shade in front, below which it is ashen.

The following species were collected by Mr. Schwarz and Mr. Bela Hubbard, of the Detroit Scientific Association, among other most valuable scientific material, obtained during a recent visit to Florida. Megathymus yuccae (Bdv. & Lec.) Scudd.

The eyes are large and naked; caputal squamation of mixed flattened scales and hair. I cannot find any ocelli. The cylindrical, scaled antennæ are capitate, without terminal inflection or hooklet. The tibæ and tarsi are strongly spinose; hind and middle tibiæ with terminal claw.