PREFACE. 13 



papers referred to. make it possible to ascertain the names of which, the 

 specimens are typical. But many species have disappeared, leaving 

 no trace; in whose hands they are at present I have been unable to 

 ascertain. Mr. Grote, in the third and fourth volumes of the Transac- 

 tions of the American Entomological Society, published a number 01 

 descriptions referring to the types as in this same collection. Most 01 

 these also have disappeared except in the Deltoids where nearly all are 

 present, properly labeled. Here, however, museum pests have been 

 at work and some of the specimens are in a very precarious condition. 

 I have compared many specimens to get a duplicate series as nearly as 

 possible resembling the originals. This series will be deposited in the 

 United States National Museum, when completed. But Mr. Grote's 

 statement, above cited, was too broad. I think he must have intended 

 to refer to the Noctuids only, for, certainly, many of the types in other 

 families are in the American Museum of Natural History, New York 

 city. 



In the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History is the Har- 

 ris collection, containing a considerable number of specimens labeled 

 by Harris himself. There are also a few of Mr. Morrison's types in the 

 collection. 



At Cambridge, in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, are most of 

 the types of Dr. Packard's species described from Labrador. These 

 were originally in the Museum of the Peabody Academy, at Salem, 

 where I first saw them, and they were then in a sadly fragmentary 

 condition, and on the high road to complete destruction. Their trans- 

 fer to Cambridge was a decidedly wise move, and when I last saw them 

 there they looked much better and bid fair to last for some time to 

 come. A carefully compared set of specimens is a desideratum. For 

 his work on the North American Lepidoptera, Zeller derived a consid- 

 able portion of his material from this collection, and most of his noctuid 

 types are here. A few Grote and Morrison types are also deposited 

 here. 



The collections in the U. S. National Museum are very rich in 

 noctuidae, but have comparatively few types of the older authors. A 

 small number of the Walker types were donated to the museum by 

 Dr. C. J. S. Bethune, at my request, in 1891. All of Dr. Riley's species 

 are represented in the collection, forming part of his gift to the museum, 

 and in that collection were also a few Morrison types. Morrison's types, 

 it will be noted, are everywhere. The collection originally formed by 

 myself was purchased by the museum, and contained types of a few 

 species described by myself, and of a number of species described and 

 given me by Mr. Grote after the sale of his collection to the British 

 Museum. In the Meske collection, now also in the museum, there are 

 a few types by Grote, Harvey and Lintuer, while it also contains nearly 

 the same series of species to be found in the other Albany collections 

 previously mentioned. The Belfrage material purchased for the museum 



