NO. 3 CASEY COLLECTION OF COLEOPTERA BUCHANAN 5 



in Memoir 7, page 2, 1916, he refers to the study of 275 individuals of 

 Saprinus lugens Erichson from Arizona, though at present there are 

 but six Arizona specimens of this species in the collection. Again, 

 among Casey's 16 examples of Tyloderma foveolata Say is a pair 

 from Indiana, the smaller of which bears a folded label in Casey's 

 handwriting, " smallest of 65 ", the larger a similar label, " largest of 

 65 ". The greater convenience of small, selected lots for study pur- 

 poses was no doubt Casey's principal reason for restricting the size 

 of his series, with insufficient storage space a contributory factor. It 

 is not to be supposed that he discarded all the duplicates, as on more 

 than one occasion consignments of. excess material were sent to the 

 National Museum and possibly to other institutions or correspondents 

 as well. 



Casey's unusual scheme for indicating the locality of his specimens 

 deserves special mention. The base of this system is a small State 

 abbreviation label to which he added various marks or symbols — dots, 

 dashes, and crosses — in black or red ink. The nature, number, ar- 

 rangement, and color of these marks on the label gives the clue to the 

 definite locality within the State and sometimes to additional informa- 

 tion as to date and collector. For example Ari denotes Sabino Canyon, 

 Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, collected by J. F. Tucker. There 

 are altogether about 160 different kinds of these cryptic labels repre- 

 sented in the collection. A complete list of them, together with their 

 more precise locality equivalents, arranged alphabetically by States, 

 is kept on file in the Casey room with the collection, so that the exact 

 locality of any specimen can be quickly ascertained. 



In adopting this unorthodox method of labeling, Casey's purpose 

 was to obtain a label which, while giving the essential data or clue 

 to such data, at the same time was small enough to permit unobstructed 

 examination of the ventral surface of the specimen. The short focal 

 distance and high magnification attendant on the use of his old- 

 fashioned binocular compound microscope made small labels a virtual 

 necessity ; in the case of minute beetles, such labels had the further 

 merit of conserving space, increasing the available pinning area in his 

 boxes by one-third or more. Casey followed this scheme of labeling 

 for many years, but finally gave it up, doubtless because the growth 

 of his collection rendered the system too complicated for easy use. 

 The conventional locality labels which were attached to later material 

 were reduced to the desired smallness by folding, either once or twice, 

 but always so as to leave the State name uppermost. 



Of the 9,400 species described by Casey, the type specimens of most 

 have been located. The types of a few however, some 19 in number. 



