120 the canadian entomologist 



Collection of Insects in the Natural History Museum at 



St. John, N. B. 



The Natural History Society of New Brunswick was organ- 

 ized in 1862. The majority of the members at that time were 

 geologists and ornithologists, and it was not until about 1884 that 

 the first collection of the insects of St. John County was pre- 

 sented by Mr. H. E. Goold. Mr. Goold may be considered the 

 pioneer entomologist of the Natural History Society of New 

 Brunswick. A few years later Mrs. C. E. Heustis made a collec- 

 tion of insects in the vicinity of St. John and presented it to the 

 Museum. For a number of years Mrs. Heustis was a contributor 

 to the Canadian Entomologist. These collections were exposed 

 to light and insects were almost entirely destroyed. 



About 1895 Wm. Mcintosh began making a general collection 

 of the insects of New Brunswick. This collection has steadily 

 grown, and at the present time numbers about nineteen thousand 

 four hundred and sixty-seven specimens. Mr. A. G. Leavitt 

 collected Hymenoptera for several years and recently presented 

 his collection, numbering about two thousand specimens, to the 

 Museum. Smaller collections h-ave been presented from time to 

 time. 



At the time of writing the insect collections in the Museum 

 number over 24,000 specimens, including several thousand speci- 

 mens, which have not yet been incorporated in the general collec- 

 tion and a large number of unnamed "unique" specimens. i\s 

 is the case in so many collections, the Lepidoptera outnumber the 

 other orders. The general collection shows some five thousand 

 one hundred and seventy specimens representing less than eight 

 hundred species. 



The New Brunswick material was determined mostly by Dr. 

 Fletcher and Herman Strecker. The Noctuidae were named by Dr. 

 John B.Smith and Dr. Ottolengui: Geometers by Rev. G.W.Taylor, 

 of British Columbia, and others by Dr. H. C. Dyar and Wm." 

 Beutenmuller. The Hymenoptera, numbering some four thousand 

 eight hundred and thirteen are not well worked up. Mr. Sladen 

 determined a number of the bees, and Mr. H. H. Harrington 

 many of the saw-fiies, etc. S. A. Rohwer, of the United States 

 National Museum, determined a number of the saw-fiies, finding 



