THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COLLECTION 



BY 



NATHAN BANKS 



The collection today is the second in America; in several groups it 

 stands first. The Coleoptera lead; our Museum containing the 

 Leconte, Melsheimer, Ziegler, Dietz, Hayward, Blanchard, Double- 

 day Harris and Carnochan collections, a set of the Biologia Centrali 

 Americana and a set of the Bishop Hawaiian material and an im- 

 mense number from various other sources. There are types of prob- 

 ably over 14,000 species, about one-half yet to be catalogued. A new 

 Nearctic collection, based on the old, with the Bowditch, Dietz, 

 Hayward and miscellaneous accessions added, is in progress of ar- 

 rangement by Dr. Darlington. When this is done and the exotic 

 material is more completely arranged we shall have a collection of 

 which we may well be proud. The Chrysomelidae of Bowditch and 

 the Cicindelidae of Harris are particularly valuable; the Ceramby- 

 cidae and Curculionidae also contain a vast number of determined 

 species. The recent Darlington collections from Australia add thou- 

 sands of species to the collection. 



Among the Lepidoptera the most valuable parts are the great 

 collections of world-wide scope made by, and bequeathed by, An- 

 drew J. Weeks and that made by C. T. Paine and given by Mrs. 

 Richard T. Fisher; the S. E. Cassino collection with many types; the 

 Geometridae (of Packard and Swett), the Microlepidoptera (largely 

 Chambers and Dietz) and the Scudder butterflies. There are a num- 

 ber of exotic butterflies still unmounted, but a vast number of speci- 

 mens have been pinned during the last few years. There are types of 

 fully 1500 species, almost all of them catalogued. Mr. Cassino's gift 

 of much of the Doll collection and the receipt of the great collection 

 made by Stevens in New Guinea are among the most useful recent 

 accessions, together with the enormous collections made by Bates and 

 Darlington in the West Indies and by Bates in Panama and Hon- 

 duras. The latter collection alone numbers perhaps 45,000 specimens. 



The Diptera collection is especially valuable, containing the 

 American material of Loew, Osten Sacken and Johnson. There are 



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