110 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



not often, fof publicity and superstition are not compatible com- 

 panions. To-day in this country there are thousands of people 

 who, if they spy a butterfly unfamiliar to them, hasten to learn 

 if it be not the precious prize. Scarcely a year ago a newspaper 

 printed an account of a butterfly caught near New ^'ork which 

 was unicpie and for which $3,000 was paid at once by the nearest 

 Museum. Such items and such inquirers have become the bane 

 of every Museum Curator's existence. Such hordes of Pieris 

 rapce or Anosia plexippiis come in the mails, each in(juiry demanding 

 an answer! .A little less than twenty years ago a prominent 

 newspaper was guilty of printing a more startling \ariant of the 

 m>th. It was to the efl'ect that the United States National Museum 

 had just paid 820,000 for an American butterfly. An empUnee 

 was forced to devote se\eral months of his entire working days 

 to writing denials and |:>acifying \isitors who came with sjx'cimens 

 worth less than a j)enn\' for which they hoped to get thousands. 



A similar myth whicli has got into print scores of times 

 is that of the arctic flea. It differs much in detail. The price 

 that it would fetch (a pair being wanted) was sometimes as low 

 as $1,000, but it was more often up to the traditional $o,0()0. 

 It was in\ariably wantefi 1)\- the Hon. Mr. Rothschild. Some 

 said the creature inhabit ated the fur of the arctic fox. Others 

 cited the .sea otter and called it the more elusi\e, as at the moment 

 the animal was killed the parasite left the body. It is said that 

 Mr. Rothschild has sent expeditions at the cost of tens of thousands 

 to hunt arctic mammals until the identity of the desired flea 

 should be forever established and the types deposited in the 

 Tring Museum. 



It is quite possible that some good-natured student of fleas 

 w'ould give five dollars for some new arctic species. 



All this suggests two lines of inquiry: Has $5,000 e\er been 

 paid for a single entomological specimen; if not, how much has? 

 On the other hand, is it possible for any one in North America, 

 excepting less than a dozen trained experts, to make even a moder- 

 ate living by collecting insect rarities? Any dealer in insects 

 might be inclined through self-interest to exaggerate the first, 

 since he has rarities to sell, and to under-estimate the other, since 

 he is constantly importuned to buy. ^ 



