66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



COLLECTIONS OF THE LATE DR. ASA FITCH. 



Having been requested by the family of the late Dr. Asa Fitch, State 

 Entomologist of New York, to examine and report upon the condition of 

 his great collection of insects, I visited Fitch's Point, Salem, N. Y., on 

 the 1 2th and 13th of November last, and made as careful an investigation 

 thereof as time and circumstances allowed. In the belief that the follow- 

 ing items or notes are of general interest to all entomologists, they are 

 respectfully submitted by Francis G. Sanborn, Consulting Naturalist, 

 Andover, Mass. : 



Dr. Fitch's " General Collection " of insects of all orders fills one 

 hundred and six boxes (" Cartons lie'ge's " of Deyrolle, nearly all of double 

 depth, size 26 x 193^ cm.) and is now in excellent condition, suffering 

 only to the extent of perhaps fifteen per ct. from a slight coating of dry 

 mould, easily removed. No Anthrenus or other Dermestide is to be 

 detected among them. Very few are badly broken or damaged, perhaps 

 fifty in all out of upwards of fifty-five thousand numbers. Although chiefly 

 from the U. S., the collection contains a fair percentage of European and 

 other exotic species obtained by exchange with Drs. Sichel and Signoret, 

 and Messrs. Andrew Murray, Fairmain and others. The Coleoptera 

 occupy eighteen boxes, the Orthoptera seven, Neuroptera six, Hymen- 

 optera eight, Lepidoptera twenty-one, only four of which are Diurnal. 

 The Hemiptera are nobly represented, the Heteropterous by fourteen, and 

 the Homopterous by twelve ; to this latter division, as most students are 

 aware, the Doctor devoted an exceptional amount of attention, and 

 apparently all of his types, as described in the N. Y. State Agricultural 

 Reports for many years, are here preserved in excellent order. The Dip- 

 tera occupy five boxes, and four more contain Myriapoda, Arachnida and 

 Crustacea, chiefly terrestrial and local. 



In addition, two large cases of 62 draws or slides, and several boxes 

 of various forms, contain by rough estimate over one hundred thousand 

 duplicate Coleoptera and above twenty thousand of all other orders, 

 principally of the Doctor's own collecting from New York State. Many 

 of these, however, have suffered from the ravages of Dermestes lardarius, 

 though not exceeding twenty per cent. The Biological illustrations, 

 chiefly " Galls," are now in excellent order and well arranged, but liable 

 to disarrangement in transportation. A vast amount of patient labor is 



