182 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Types of all these species were deposited by Dr. Clemens in 

 the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadel 

 phia. There they were studied in 1872 by Lord Walsingham, 

 and some years later, according to information obtained through 

 Miss Mary Murtfeldt, by Mr. V. T. Chambers, who, however, 

 did not seem to have more appreciation of these types than he 

 had of his own, and he only went over them in the hastiest man 

 ner. Finally they were studied in iSSi by Prof. C. H. Fernald. 

 There is also evidence that Dr. C. V. Riley was acquainted with 

 at least a part of them. 



Prof. Fernald has kindly given me his recollections about 

 Clemens' types in iSSi. They were then just as received from 

 Clemens, pinned with the short English brass pins on small pieces 

 of cork glued to the glass in old-fashioned insect boxes, each cork 

 bearing a number corresponding to a list in Clemens' handwrit 

 ing. 



On account of the unsafe condition of the glass boxes these 

 types were later transferred by Mr. E. T. Cresson and Dr. Henry 

 Skinner to a large double box, and each specimen was labeled 

 with the number found on the cork. A statement to this effect is 

 found in Cresson's handwriting on part of Clemens' list, yet in 

 existence. 



Since then the types of this pioneer worker in this group of 

 insects have remained in oblivion, partly because no one took an 

 active interest in the study of Tineina and partly because the speci 

 mens, to the uninitiated, did not give the impression of much 

 importance, bearing no labels to indicate their true value, while 

 the box to which they had been transferred contained a number 

 of other moths of no importance and was stored away and subse 

 quently overlooked and forgotten. 



During a visit of the writer to the Academy in the spring of 

 1900, this box was not in evidence in spite of careful search and 

 repeated inquiries. All that was found was a part of Clemens' 

 list of his types, with Cresson's note about the disposition of 

 them. One box, it is true, was there, which contained some 

 specimens undoubtedly pinned by Clemens, but careful study soon 

 revealed that only a small part of the insects were truly Clemens' 

 own specimens, and that even those could not with any reason 

 able certainty be regarded as his original types. At most they 

 only represented an insignificant proportion of his species. 

 * Thus the collection of the types left by the founder of the study 

 of American Tineina was given up as lost, and Clemens' descrip 

 tion alone had to be relied upon for the identification of his 

 species. The great majority of them have been identified with 

 certainty from that source alone a fact which speaks highly of 

 the carefulness of Clemens' work. Still quite a number remained 

 unknown to the present active workers, and some of them there 

 was little hope of ever identifying with certainty. 



