38 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Dear Sir, — 



Mr. Behrens (p. 200, Vol. 8) writes : " Mr. V. T. Chambers is 

 satisfied to get Tineidse dead and dry, and even untouched by a pin." 

 '' Satisfied " in this connection is ahnost too strong a word, and may be 

 misleading. So a distinguished Lepidopterist of Europe has made an 

 objection to my work on the ground that I only keep specimens packed 

 in cotton, and that, unpacking them, I place them under a microscope 

 and prepare my descriptions from the appearances thus presented. This 

 statement, like the preceding by Mr Behrens, comes from a misappre- 

 hension of the facts. I prefer always to have some of my specimens on 

 pins and some of them with the wings spread. It is best to study them 

 pirned and not pinned, spread and not spread. When the opportunity 

 offers, I prefer in the first place to observe them closely alive, before I 

 take them, and when the quantity of material suffices, I also examine 

 them both spread and not spread after they are dead, with the eye, a 

 simple lens, or a compound microscope, according to circumstances. In- 

 deed, in by far the greater number of new^ species described by me, the 

 insects have been examined not only in the conditions above mentioned, 

 but have also been dissected ; as is evident not only from the published 

 accounts of the neuration of the wings, but much more by the multitude 

 of drawings of the neuration now in my possession. All of my Tineina 

 from Texas and from Canada, and nearly all that I have received from 

 Miss Murtfeldt, from St. Louis, have come pinned and spread. Mr. 

 Behrens wrote to me that he preferred not to undertake the task of pinning 

 these little things, and besides he had not time, and I replied that I would 

 be glad to get them packed in cotton without pinning ; and all of his 

 specimens have been sent in this way. I have also received a few speci-. 

 mens from one or two other Entomological friends in the same condition. 

 This mode, however, does not answer for sending Tineina for any con- 

 siderable distance. The antennae, palpi and tufts of scales on the wings 

 or elsewhere are almost invariably rubbed off, and the insect is otherwise 

 worn and denuded, so that I have not attempted to describe one speci- 

 men in ten that has been received in this condition. This plan, or rather 

 a modification of it, answers better for preserving Micros taken at home, 

 and which do not have to be shipped. Of the greater number of my 

 Tineina I have not attempted the preservation of many specimens at a 

 time. Making but few exchanges, I have kept but very few for that pur- 



