Oct , '02] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 239 



more sudden and vehement changes in the relative abundance 

 or scarcity of the concerned species. Thus certain butterflies 

 are greatly benefited by the making of " clearings " in virgin 

 land and these hover in swarms about the settlers' fields and 

 dwellings; this is true of the Anartia spp., Junonia spp., 

 Lyccena spp., some Papilios, and many Pierinae and Hesperi- 

 dse. Other species frequent the roadways and paths through 

 the forests ; it is not unusual to see 50 to 100 specimens of 

 Caligo spp. during an afternoon's ride in the forest. 



There are two classes of butterfly collectors : natives, most 

 ot whom have enough Caucasian blood in their veins to be in- 

 terested in the work and perhaps slightly ambitious and who 

 may become able to swing a rude net in the open with consid- 

 erable strength if not skill ; and foreigners — mostly resident 

 Germans, some traveling Englishmen, some investigating 

 Americans — all with more or less zeal limited by their spare 

 time, degree of health, and fear of fevers and forest dangers. 

 A collector of either of these classes can, for six or eight 

 months of the year, collect daily 100 to 200 specimens of some 

 twenty species of butterflies within a few rods of his door. 



Now, suppose a collector takes 100 salable specimens per 

 day, fifty collectors in seven months (one rainy season) will 

 take one million specimens. Of course, about half the material 

 is not first class, and then there is a loss from mold and ants, 

 but it is a umider that the cheap species are not cheaper. With- 

 out the delays and heavy expenses of traveling the native or 

 resident collector can run a very lucrative " side line " by net- 

 ting the butterflies in his back yard — providing the wholesale 

 dealer will accept and in part pay for them. 



Undoubtedly the dealers who are receiving specimens of 

 " flies in lots of tens of thousands would gladly retail their 

 common species at a fraction of the listed prices were it not for 

 the " looks of it." The rapidly increasing demand for cheap 

 tropical insects with which to tone up temperate collections 

 keeps their retail prices from falling flat. As more and more 

 regions are made accessible to the professional collector and as 

 more and more men are willing to face death in the low " hot 

 country" and endure the hardships of living and trying to 



