THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 301 " 



Department of Public Instruction is now housed in the Parlia- 

 mentary Building in Quebec, and is cared for by Abbe V. A. Huard 

 and his assistant. In this Museum there are really two Provancher 

 collections. The first was purchased in 1877 by the Museum and 

 is known as the 1877 collection (in this paper referred to as the 

 first collection). The other came to the Museum (through pur- 

 chase) after Provancher's death, and is known as the Derniere 

 Provancher collection, (in this paper referred to as the second collec- 

 tion). Both of these collections are in the cabinets obtained from 

 Provancher, and most fortunately are still left as arranged by him. 

 Each collection contains species not represented in the other, but 

 in cases where the species was found represented in both collec- 

 tions and there was nothing in the description or manuscript 

 notes to prevent, we have chosen as lectotype a specimen from the 

 second collection, because this was the collection retained and 

 used by Provancher until his death, and we are inclined to believe, 

 even though he was not a "type-worshipper," that he would retain 

 the actual type for future reference. Specimens in both collec- 

 tions bear small, yellow labels on which a number is printed. 

 These numbers are species numbers and refer to a catalogue pre- 

 pared by Provancher. Each insect order iri both collections be- 

 gins with the number one. In the Hymenoptera, therefore, con- 

 sidering both collections as a unit, we often have two, usually 

 widely different species under the same number. There appears 

 to be no instance in which the same species occurs under the same 

 number in both collections. The two collections differ in the 

 style of name label. The name label for the 1877 collection is on 

 blue paper, while that for the second collection is on white paper 

 which has a double red line (the outer being the heavier) around 

 the margin. 



The catalogues prepared by Provancher are in the Public 

 Museum, and although they are little more than lists of numbers 

 followed by names, with an occasional mention of locality, they 

 are of some assistance in proving the way in which Provancher 

 treated species reduced by him to synonymy. 



A hasty examination of all the insects in both collections 

 showed that they were in remarkably fine condition, considering 

 that they are kept in wooden drawers unprotected by any repellant, 



