DEPARTMENT OF INSECTS. 191 



silk culture in Jii[)an, ivcei veil from Mr. Hitchcock, wa« also placed ou 

 exhibition. 



The exhibit collection was opened to the public in April last. 



On account oi'his iamiliarity with the Macro-Le])idopterii 1 have had 

 the assistant devote most of his time, uot otherwise occupied, to the 

 arrangement of these insects in the permanent drawers, the progress 

 being indicated in the statement of condition. As Entomologist of the 

 Department of Agriculture, 1 was also able, in connection with the work 

 of that Department, and without expense to the Museum, to secure the 

 services of Dr. S. W. A\'illiston, of New Haven, during January and 

 February, in arranging a large part of the Diptera and more j'jartic- 

 ularly the Syrphidiw. 



In like manner the services of Prof. H. Osborn, of Ames, Iowa, Mere 

 obtained, and he reairanged and classilied the collection of Hemiptera 

 Heteroptera according to Uhler's new list issued during the year.* 



A large number of exotic Lei)idoptera of the Museum were unnamed, 

 and the assistant was directed to make two trips to New York City, 

 and there succeeded in identifying most of the species. 



It is noteworthy, as illustrating the rich accumulations nowcomiu'is- 

 ing this national collection, that each of these specialists found much 

 of infeiest and veiy many new or undescribed species and ev^en new 

 genera. Added to the work here indicated must be mentioned my in- 

 dividual efforts in the ] eai-raiigiug and i)erfecting of dillerent families 

 in s(!verai orders, but more particularly in the Micro-Lepidoptera. My 

 health having broken down last spring, I was forced to seek its resto- 

 ration in rest from work, and in a trip made to Europe I took witli me 

 much uiuletermined matei'ial, especially in Tortricidie, Tineida?, and 

 i'yrali(he. Here again the amount of undescribed material proved very 

 large, and much of it will be described before long by llagonot, of Paris, 

 and Lord Walsinghani, of England, to whouj, lor nmch courteous aid 

 already given, I take this opportunity of publicly expressing my 

 thanks. 



It is a unitter of sonje difiiculty to make anything like an accurate 

 statement of the number of specimens or sj)ecies in the collection — the 

 former runs up into the hundreds of thousands, the latter well into the 

 tens of thousands. So far as the data are accurately obtainable the 

 collectioa consists of the following: 



EXHIBIT COLLECTION. 



Nmiibor of cases on exliDjitioii 9 



AV'jill Hcrecu cases 4 



Wall-scroon framcM for pictiireH 2 



Total 15 



* Check List of the Hemiptora Hoteroptera, of North America, by Philip R. Uhler, 

 Brooklyn Eat. Soc, Brooklyn, N. Y., February, 1886. 



