PREFACE. 



It is always a wholesome thing to know where types of sj^ecies are to be found, and in 

 this belief I have given herein a list with necessary remarks of all those in my own collection, 

 numbering in all 425 species and varieties in 683 examples. These embrace nearly all of 

 Reakirt's types and, many of those of Behr and Morrison, some of Hy. Edwards, W. H. 

 Edwards, Grote, Lintner, Hewitson, Walker, Westwood, and others, as well as, with two excep- 

 tions, all described by myself. 



Incidentally I may be allowed to state that this collection of Lepidoptera, containing many 

 thousands of examples illustrating the various genera of native and foreign butterflies and 

 moths, was commenced by myself over fifty years since ; and during the half century following, 

 neither time, labour, nor expense have been spared to bring it to its present status. In my 

 earlier collecting days there were but few collections in this country, and the opportunities of 

 acquiring material from our Western regions were about insurmountable, and the same could 

 be said of exotics. The earliest collections of any pretensions were those of Titian Peale and 

 Rev. J. G. JMorris. Peale received some Western material from Nuttall, who collected in the 

 Cascade Range, and he himself obtained exotic species at various i)laces whilst attached to 

 Wilkes's South Sea Expedition in 1838-1842. His collection, which was kept in small book- 

 shaped boxes, was bequeathed to the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia, but was not 

 kept intact, being distributed through the general collection. 



Rev. Morris's passed entire into my possession about forty years since. It contained, as did 

 Peale's, both native and foreign species. Some of Morris' examples have not been duplicated 

 to this day. Drexler and Kennicott made collections in the West and Northwest. Of Drex- 

 ler's collection I also became the owner, as well as of that of J. P. Wild, a most assiduous 

 collector in Baltimore. His collection contained probably the first female Argynnis Diana 

 known, which he captured in copuli with the male in Missouri about 1853, which examples I 

 still have. Reakirt's was the first general collection in this country that attained any propor- 

 tions. All of his types that it contained are now in my collection. 



All species in my collection are indicated by labels, with name, author, locality, etc. In 

 the case of types these labels have red borders ; in all others, black. Each individual example 

 has its separate label. Besides the types here mentioned there are vast numbers of co-types, as 

 in the case of the large and almost complete collection of Chili Lepidoptera, formed by Mr. 

 Edmonds during a number of years' sojourn in that country, and which were worked over by 

 Butler, of the British Museum, who described the large amount of new material contained 

 therein. Of these I received from Mr. Edmonds of almost every species, inclusive of the 

 Noctuidce and Phakenida', as well as of the Diurnals and Bombycidm. Of the numberless 

 things Pakearctic and exotic described by Dr. Staudinger, I have received from him most 

 liberally during the last tliiity or more years. With this and ten years' correspondence with 

 the Grand Duke Nicolas, I have been enabled to have the Palaearctic fauna rejjresented with 

 extraordinary richness, scarcely any of the Parnassius, Colias, or Argynnis being wanting. In 

 the obtaining of exotics, nothing has been spared ; of the splendid Ornithoptera, all known 

 species are represented. This collection is also exceedingly rich in aberrations, albinos, melanos, 

 suffused forms, hybrids, hermaphrodites, and other monstrosities, both native and foreign. In 

 the North American Heterocera are to be found the greatest rarities, numbers being uniques 

 or types collected by Drexler, Ridings, Stretch, Boll, Heiligbrodt, Doll, Morrison, Kcebele, 

 Bruce, and a host of others less known. 



Later, the acquiring of Western and exotic material became, through commerce and travel, 

 a comparatively easy task. Doll, Bruce, and others collected extensively and intelligently in 

 our own territories. Dr. Staudinger has made the Palsearctic and exotic species as familiar as 

 our own, whilst to the Grand Duke Nicolas we are indebted for an extended knowledge of the 

 species of Siberia and Central Asia, hundreds of which are figured in the superb " Memoires" 

 edited by himself. 



HERMAN STRECKER. 



Eeadino, Pa., U.S.A., March 9, 1900. 



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