The following letter was read by the President after adjourn- 
ment, before the Association of Economic Entomolovgists : 
‘Amherst, Mass., August 26, 1889. 
Mr. James FLETCHER. 
Dear Sir :—Will you please express to the members of the Ento- 
mological Club how great pleasure it would have given me to meet with 
them at Toronto and how deeply I regret that 1 am not able to do so, 
but I have only just returned from Europe and find so much to do in 
disposing of accumulated work, and also in working up my notes taken 
in Europe that I have no leisure moments for anything else. 
The objects of my visit to Europe was were to study the types of 
North American Pyralidz in the European museums, and also to get 
all the hints I could in economic entomology. 
The most important collection of course, was that of Guenée which, 
after his death went into the hands of Mons. Charles Oberthiir of Rennes, 
one of the kindest and most genial of gentlemen it has ever been my 
good fortune to meet. Here every facility was granted me for the study 
of his types which are in excellent condition, and they are preserved 
with scrupulous care. 
The detour of the usual routes of travel—from London to Southamp- 
ton, thence by steamer to St. Malo, cars to Rennes and then to Paris— 
took me through a part of France not often visited by Americans, a most 
quaint and interesting region, where the people retain all the old customs 
of their ancestors. 
As is well known, a few of Guenée’s species belonged to the collec- 
tion of Lefebre, and to that of the National Museum. ‘The Lefebre col- 
lection has been destroyed but I did not learn any of the particulars. 
However, as there were only four North American Pyralids in it, and as 
these are well known we shall not be affected by the loss. How much 
trouble the loss of the Lefebre collection may cause the students of the 
Macrolepidoptera, I do not know. 
Upon my arrival in Paris, after calling on Mons. Ragonot, I went 
to the National Museum to see those two insignificant types of Guenée. 
Not even the Eiffel Tower nor the grand World’s Exposition had any 
attractions for me as Jong as those two types were unknown. Upon 
making my business known to Mons. Lucas, he called his assistants and 
there followed a vast amount of ‘‘parlez-vous-ing” and head shaking 
which looked rather ominous. At last I was told that the types ‘: did 
not exist any more,” that ‘‘Guenée did not deposit any types there,” 
and many other discouraging remarks, but I showed them in Guenée’s 
Pyralites that those two types had been deposited there and tried to im- 
ENTOMOLOGICA AMERICANA. You. V. 4 OcToBER & NOVEMBER 1889. 
