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not all B/(/c'ssus affinis and Hydroporus tindidatus cither. I'he ditch 

 drains a spring-hole in a meadow. I have lately taken a great liking to 

 this interesting group of Coleoplera, and the scarcity of good collections, 

 or even of good series of the commoner species, amongst my friends has 

 led me to write and show what can be done, even with little time at your 

 disposal, by careful and persistent collecting. 



S. LOWELL ELLIOT, Pli. D. 



American Entomological Science has met with a great loss in the 

 death of Mr. Samuel Lowell Elliot, who died, February 12, 1889, aged 

 45, at his home in Brooklyn, from nervous prostration after a brief ill- 

 ness. Of delicate constitution, having been an invalid the latter part of 

 his life, he devoted for many years past, when health permitted, all his 

 time to the collection and rearing of Lepidoptera, in which he met with 

 wonderful success. Inheriting unusual inventive talent, and possessing 

 keen perceptive faculties, he collected great numbers of the rarer cater- 

 pillars, carrying them through their different stages with great success. 

 With rare ingenuity he devised breeding cages and showed great skill 

 and tact in caring for the larvce and in contriving boxes for hibernating 

 both larvcC and pupte. He was especially successful in his apparatus 

 for receiving the insects as they emerged from the chrysalis, so that their 

 wings always developed well. Thus he would rear hundreds and 

 thousands o{ BombycidcB \ his devices for mating them and securing the 

 eggs of many rarer species showing great patience and sagacity. The 

 result was that he bred the most perfect specimens of our rarer species 

 of Butterflies, Sphijigidce and Bombycidce by the thousand. Of the Coch- 

 lidcp, for example, he had raised twenty species, comprising large suites 

 of specimens forming entire broods. There is probably no such collec- 

 tion in this country of such suites of perfectly preserved specimens. The 

 moment the moths issued from their cocoons, when their wings were fully 

 expaiaded he would watch for them, and before they had flapped their 

 wings so as to disturb the scales, would poison them, and transfer them 

 to the setting-board. 



Had his life been spared, and had he had more strength, he would 

 have amassed a collection unique in showing the variation of species. 

 Unfortunately INIr. Elliot did not take notes or make full descriptions of 

 the early stages, but the writer can testify as to his generosity in allowing 

 others to use for study his rich material, and to his hospitality. Mr. 

 Elliot was a born collector rather than a student ; he had wonderful 

 keenness of vision and perseverance in detecting larvae; he was also a 

 collector of books, of which within a period of five years he had amassed 

 a collection of Americana including Natural History, and Agricultural 

 Reports, forming a collection of 10,000 volumes. His house, from 

 cellar to attic, was filled with books. One spare room was filled with 

 rearing apparatus, on which he spent thousands of dollars. Had he 

 been permitted to live, the results to the higher study of Lepidoptera 

 would have been marked. 



