CORRESPONDENCE. 
To THE Epitor oF ‘‘ EntomoLocicA AMERICANA.” 
The Address of Mr. 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 liberty of calling your attention 
to the fact of 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 Rhopalocera 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 few 
species hitherto catalogued as from this faunal region which are not re- 
presented and they are: Colas Boothit, Curtis; Meltea Helvia, Sc.; 
Melitea Alma, Strecker; Eretia Rossi, Curtis; Erebia Sofia, Curtis ; 
Chrysophanus Annica, Edw. ; Pamphila, Fuma, Edw.; Pamphila Lellus, 
Edw.; P. Horus, Edw. ; P. Cegius, Edw. ; P. Arabus, Edw.; Nison- 
tades Tatius, Edw.; Erycides Urania, West. Hew.; and £. 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 both 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 Malay Archipelago. Among 
the Asiatic species there is a very large and perfect set of the Rhopalocera 
of Japan, taken by the writer during his stay in that country as the 
Naturalist of the U. S. Eclipse Expedition of 1887. Species not taken 
by himself are represented by specimens purchased from the late Henry 
Prver of Yokohama, or obtained from 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 entire collection, 
very nearly 4,co0o species of the Rhopalocera of the world. 
