—35— 

 CORRESPONDENCE. 



To THE Editor of '' Entomologica Americana." 



The Address of IVIr. J. B. Smith before the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science having elicited some comment on the 

 part of several correspondents, I take the hberty of calling your attention 

 to the fact C)f which Mr. Smith was ignorant at the time when he pre- 

 pared his address, that the entire collection of Mr. W. H. Edwards of 

 Coalburgh. West Va. , has been purchased by the writer and forms a 

 part of his collection of the Rhopalcjcera of North America. It is need- 

 less to say anything at length as to the advantages which flow to the 

 writer in the matter of determining specimens of the Rhopalocera which 

 may be kindly referred to him by correspondents. The collection with 

 the additions of the collection of Mr. T. L. Mead, and additions made 

 from the catches of various collectors from all over the United States is 

 probably the most perfect collection in the world of the Diurnal Lepi- 

 doptera of Temperate North America. There are only a very lew 

 species hitherto catalogued as from -this faunal region which are not re- 

 presented and they are : Colias Boothii, Curtis ; Melitcea Helvia, Sc. ; 

 ilJelitcPa Alma, Strecker ; Erehia Rossii, Curtis; Erehia Sofia, Curtis; 

 Chrysophanus Annica, Edw. ; Paniphila I'ltvia, Edw. ; Pamphi'a Bellus, 

 Edw. ; P. Horus, Edw.; P. Ceslus, Edw.; P. Aralnis, Edw.; K^son- 

 iades Tatius, Edw. ; Erycides Uratiia, West. Hew. ; and E. Texana, 

 Sc. — For specimens of these the writer will give any amount in reason 

 either of gold or pearls, or of specimens in exchange. 



The species are represented in most cases by long series of speci- 

 mens of bi)th sexes, and the collection is rich in aberrations and seasonal 

 forms. In addition to the collection of North American Rhopalocera 

 the writer has obtained from various sources large numbers of the Rho- 

 palocera of other faunal regions. The collection contains fully fifteen 

 hundred species from the Antilles, Central and South America, over four 

 hundred species from Equatorial Africa and the Cape; a full series of 

 the strictly European species and over one thousand species of the Rho- 

 palocera of the .Asiatic mainland and the INIala}' Archipelago. Among 

 the Asiatic species there is a very large and perfect set of the Rhopalocera 

 of Japan, taken by" the writer during Lis stay in that countrv as the 

 Naturalist of the U. S. Eclip/Se Expedition of 18S7. Species not taken 

 by himself are represented by specimens jiurchased from the late Henry 

 Pryer of Yokohama, or obtained fiom other collectors in the Empire of 

 the Rising Sun. Of the species of Rhopalocera credited to the Japanese 

 only three or four are lacking as yet. There are, in the entu'e collection, 

 very nearly 4,000 species of the Rhopalocera of the world. 



