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not all Bidessus afinis and Hydroporus undulatus either. The ditch 
drains a spring-hole in a meadow. I have lately taken a great liking to 
this interesting group of Coleoptera, and the scarcity of good collections, 
er 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, Ph. 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 larve and in contriving boxes for hibernating 
both larvee and pupe. 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 of Bombycide ; 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, Sphingide and Bombycide by the thousand. Of the Coch- 
lide, 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 
expanded 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 Mr. 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. 
