14- Twenty THIRD Report on the State Cabinet. 



enhance the value of its pages. It is designed to embrace all 

 the butterflies of New York. 



During the past year Mr. J. A. Lintner, assistant in the 

 Museum, who has been engaged for a number of years in the 

 study of insects, has commenced the preparation of a synonym- 

 ical catalogue of the insects of New York. Its prosecution, 

 under circumstances favorable to its completeness, will depend 

 upon the apj^robation and cooperation of your Board. A list 

 of described species accredited to the State could readily be 

 made, and prove of some service, as indicative of present prog- 

 ress ; but, in order to impart to it a special value, it is desirable 

 that collections should be made in different parts of the State, 

 carefully studied, the species determined, and the new material 

 named and described. It is thought that a properly prepared 

 circular, issued by the Regents to the principal of each acad- 

 emy under their charge, would secure an amount of material 

 which would prove of great service in the work of cataloguing, 

 and aid much in our knowledge of geographical distribution. 



The number of insects belonging to the State of New York 

 will probably fall not far short of fifteen thousand species, of 

 which a large number are yet unknown, and a still larger num- 

 ber undescribed. 



Recognizing the value of field work in natural history, and 

 regarding it as the basis of true progress, and also appreciating 

 the importance of entomological investigations, I have author- 

 ized Mr. Lintner, when not specially required for the general 

 business of the Museum, to prosecute his investigations in the 

 field. He reports, in the vicinity of Albany, a locality of lim- 

 ited extent, peculiarly rich in its insect fauna — a very metropo- 

 lis of butterflies — which it would be inexcusable not thorouglily 

 to develop. It has already given him many species new to tlie 

 State, some of which had heretofore been known only from 

 southern States, and several species new to science. 



A collection of larvae, in alcohol, has been commenced, and it 

 is proposed to extend the collection another season, probably by 

 the aid of some other preservative fluid, which, by experiment, 

 may be found best adapted to the preservation of these delicate 

 organisms. 



Descriptions of numbers of larva? have been made by Mr. 

 Lintner during the season, and in several instances, where the 

 oi)i)ortunity has presented itself to follow the development 

 through all the stages of transformation, from the i^Qg to the 



