1914] Notes on Some Old European Collections. 91 
where most fortunately it is preserved as a separate collection 
bearing the original Fabrician labels, thus giving us Fabricius’ 
ideas of the old species even where they are not his types. 
They have been worked over somewhat since, not always 
fortunately, and some care must be exercised to be sure of all 
the labels. Thus Frederick Smith in his Catalogue of the 
Hymenopterous Insects in the British Museum records Sphex 
pensylvanicus L. as being in this collection. An examination 
of the specimen shows the unquestionable Fabrician label 
‘“‘pennsylvanica’’ and above it a much more recent label, 
‘Pennsylvania’ written by Smith, to judge from the hand 
writing. So close to the underside of the body as to be easily 
overlooked, is a third and very old label reading ‘“‘ Nov. Holl.”’ 
Now as Captain Cook on the voyage during which these insects 
were collected, did not touch at any point in North America, 
it is evident that Fabricius named the insect entirely from 
its appearance, without reference to the locality where it 
was captured, and Smith, probably failing to notice the upper 
label, added a locality label of his own preparation to agree 
with the name. An interesting feature of the case is that 
Fabricius wrongly identified the specimen, which is not pensyl- 
vanica at all, but fumipennis of Smith, described by the latter 
from other material, in the same book in which he records this 
insect in the Banksian collection, evidently failing to recognize 
the identity of the two. An occasional case like this indicates 
that care in the study of this collection is indispensable. 
The National Museum at Paris also contains some speci- 
mens named by Fabricius. What remains of the Bosc collection 
is there, and Fabricius frequently records species from the 
““Mus. Dom. Bosc.”’ which apparently came into the hands 
of the National Museum at the death of Bosc in 1828. This 
material is much scattered, however, and can only be recog- 
nized by labels in the hand of Fabricius and the others which 
read ‘‘Museum Paris Coll Bosc 1828”’ printed on green paper 
and which were undoubtedly added when the collection became 
the property of the Museum. 
The collection of Klug is in the Zoological Institute of the 
University of Berlin. It is not kept separate but has been 
worked into the general collections and can now be recognized 
only by the labels. These are on green paper and bear the 
