THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 211 



the material for this collection at the Society's headquarters in London, 

 and there make such selections from the insects sent as might seem desir- 

 able. All our members in London who had collections freely placed them 

 entirely at the disposal of the committee, while many of those resident in 

 other localities throughout the country expressed their readiness to con- 

 tribute anything or everything in their power to fill up blanks in the 

 desired series of specimens. 



As is usual in such cases, the bulk of the work of arranging, classifying 

 and labelling specimens fell upon a few individuals. It affords me much 

 pleasure to have the opportunity of naming especially one who has labored 

 most assiduously and has contributed more than any other person towards 

 the success of this enterprise ; I allude to my esteemed friend, Mr. John- 

 son Pettit, of Grimsby, who arranged the entire collection of Coleoptera 

 and freely contributed from his own stores — the accumulation of years — a 

 large proportion of the specimens. The extreme neatness and care 

 manifested by him in the mounting and arrangement of the insects has 

 been the admiration of all, and some idea of the accuracy of his deter- 

 minations may be arrived at when I say that such authorities as Dr. Horn 

 and Dr. LeConte, of Philadelphia, after a critical scrutiny of the whole 

 series of Coleoptera, filling some twenty-seven cases in all, could only 

 detect two or three errors, and these among the smallest and least con- 

 spicuous specimens \ such results reflect great credit on the labors of our 

 esteemed coadjutor. In the arrangement of the other departments, your 

 President was ably aided by several gentlemen, notably Messrs. E. B. 

 Reed, J. M. Denton and G. Geddes, of London ; indeed, all our London 

 members were ever ready to render all the assistance in their power. 



The expenses necessarily attendant on this work have been consider- 

 able. The making and lining of suitable cases in which to display the 

 insects, the printing of labels, &c, and the numberless outlays entailed 

 by the transmission of specimens to and fro from all parts of the country, 

 as well as many other incidentals which it is needless to enumerate here, 

 combined, have involved a large outlay. This has been chiefly met by a 

 special grant of five hundred dollars from the Government of Ontario, the 

 remainder being drawn from the Society's resources. 



To make the collection as perfect as possible, as far as accurate naming 

 is concerned, the doubtful specimens in the orders most largely repre- 

 sented were submitted to the examination and correction of specialists. 

 The entire collection of Lepidoptera was carefully gone over by Prof. A. 



