Vol. XXviii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 55 



be reasonable ground to argue that two different races or spe- 

 cies were involved. Similar series of cdivardsii, sequoiaruni, 

 audouini, Iccontei, hunter oplanatus and cupreonitens tell the 

 same story. The extremes of a specific aggregate are hetero- 

 types. The specific aggregate of californicus includes vcrmicu- 

 latns and sculptilis, as well as several intraspecific forms that 

 have escaped description. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. 



Omus cupreonitens n. sp. Fig. i, male type, humeri moderate and 

 rounded ; Fig. 2, female type, humeri broadly rounded ; Fig. 3, male, 

 an intraspecific variation, humeri obsolete ; Fig. 4, an average female. 

 Figs. 3 and 4 more highly magnified than Figs, i and 2. 



Entomology at the United States National Museum.* 



By T. D. A. COCKERELL, Boulder, Colorado. 

 Several years ago, when going over the early correspond- 

 ence of Spencer F. Baird at the Smithsonian Institution, I 

 came across the following interesting letter, addressed to Dr. 

 John Iy. LeConte, of Philadelphia: 



November 20, '58. 

 DEAR JOHNNY : 



You may as well return Vesey's bugs when done with, to be kept 

 here with his other collections. I don't believe there is another speci- 

 men here which you have not seen from the western territories. I 

 hope the new Entomological Circular we are about distributing will 

 stir up the insects generally. 



Yours ever, 



S. F. BAIRD. 



Vesey was John Xantus de Vesey, generally known in ento- 

 mological literature as Xantus, who collected beetles, along 

 with many other things, in Lower California. Dr. Horn (Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. Sci., 1894) stated that the collections were made 

 in 1859 and 1860, but we have evidence here that LeConte re- 

 ceived specimens as early as 1858. Such species as C\miato- 

 dcra xanti Horn and Pachybrackys .vanti Crotch commemo- 

 rate the Xantusian labors in this direction. 



*Read at the meeting of the Entomological Society of America, New 

 York, December 27, 1916. 



