OF WASHINGTON. 63 



were being received, principally through the Division of Entomol 

 ogy of the Department of Agriculture, which has always been 

 a steady, though never a copious, contributor to the collection. In 

 1 886 the number of insects was estimated at 500,000. If one- 

 fifth of these were Lepidoptera, the collection may have contained 

 100,000 specimens, including duplicates, at this date, and may be 

 considered to have become fairlv started, in charge of a Lepidop- 

 terist, under the direction of the entomologist to the Department 

 of Agriculture, with apparently the most favorable auspices. The 

 geographical range covered was, however, strictly North Ameri 

 can, excluding Mexico. 



An arrangement of the collection was begun by Smith an.d fin 

 ished by Linell, who succeeded him in 1889, as far as the Micro- 

 lepidoptera ; but with the increase in the total number of insects 

 in the collection, which kept up at the rate of 15,000 specimens a 

 year, without any concomitant increase in the museum force, less 

 and less attention proportionately was paid to the Lepidoptera. 

 Linell was not a Lepidopterist, aod, without assistance, could not 

 be expected to do more than preserve the material from destruc 

 tion. Consequently the collection fell into a state of virtual neg 

 lect. 



In 1891 material began to be received from Dr. W. L. Abbott 

 from Africa and Asia, and in 1892 the collection of G. Beyer, of 

 New York, was received, 1,900 specimens, containing a series of 

 European species. These were the first accessions of exotic 

 materral of any importance, and formed the nucleus of an exotic 

 collection. It was not, however, arranged at this time. 



There followed shortly the large collection of Japanese Lepi 

 doptera through Prof. Mitsukuri, which had been on exhibition 

 at the World's Fair at Chicago, further material from Dr. Abbott, 

 and the collection of Mr. William Astor Chanler in East Africa, 

 all of which remained stored in boxes and cupboards from lack 

 of space to arrange it and of time by the single aid, Mr. Linell. 



In 1895 Dr. Riley died and was succeeded by Dr. L. O. Howard 

 as honorary curator. Dr. Howard had a lively interest in the 

 national collection, and a reorganization of the Museum staff' was 

 effected,* whereby Messrs. Ashmead, Coquillett, Schwarz, and 

 Currie were assigned to duty in connection with the insect collec- 



* Noticed in Can. Ent, xxvii, 334, 1895. 



