184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1894. 



SOME NOTES FROM A STUDY OF THE PROVANCHER COLLECTION OF 



ICHNEUMONIDJE. 



BY G. C. DAVIS, 



It was with much satisfaction and high anticipations that I at 

 last found myself on the train, en route to Quebec, Canada, for the 

 purpose of studying the types of Ichneumonid^e in the Provancher 

 collection. Ever since a short while after the death of the Abbe, 

 I had been trying to ascertain what had become of the collection 

 and its condition, but my efforts proved futile until recently, through 

 the kindness of the Rev. Thos. W. Fyles, I learned of its location 

 and the means of access to it. 



I found the collection, as a whole, in three rooms of the Parliament 

 Building at Quebec. It was recently purchased by the province and 

 is a nucleus for a museum. The Abbe's collection consisted largely 

 of insects and shells, and the whole is now under the charge of 

 Mr. Saint Cyr, to whom great credit is due for the present good 

 condition of the collection. As curator he devotes his whole time 

 to the museum work, and throughout my stay very kindly assisted 

 me in every way possible. The relatives of the Abbe did not realize 

 the value of the collection of insects accumulated by him, and it 

 was only by the earnest effort of Mr. Saint Cyr, who was a co-worker 

 with the Abbe, that the collection was saved from entire destruction. 



Although the collection had been in their charge but a short time 

 the Lepidoptera were largely spoiled and many injured, and the other 

 orders suffered considerably. As the collection now stands, it is 

 neatly labeled and in fairly good cabinets. My time with the collec- 

 tion was quite limited, and farther than this I can only speak for the 

 Ichneumonidse. In that family I found quite a number of types 

 missing and some broken with only a part remaining. Another 

 feature, somewhat unsatisfactory, is, that, the collection is composed 

 primarily of two individual collections, which still remain separate, 

 and frequently specimens, labelled the same, were found to belong 

 to different genera and often to different subfamilies. This at once 

 showed a very superficial knowledge of the classification, and had 

 I not soon obtained the cue to it and had access to the Abbe's 



