175 



THE LEECH COLLECTION PRESENTED TO THE NATION. 



The National Collection of Lepidoptera located in the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington has recently been greatly 

 enriched by the addition thereto of the almost unique collection of 

 Butterflies from Europe, and Central and Eastern Asia, together 

 with the collection of European Moths, formed by the late John 

 Henry Leech, Esq., of Hurdcott House, Salisbury (see Bio- 

 graphical Notice, ante, p. 33). 



Arrangements had been made during Mr. Leech's lifetime 

 under which the Museum became possessed of his Eastern 

 Asian Moths, and now the same public institution has acquired 

 the still more important accessions adverted to, through the 

 munificence of his mother, Mrs. Leech, of Kensington Palace 

 Gardens. No more fitting memorial of the eminent entomologist, 

 whose early removal we greatly deplore, could have been devised 

 than that the collection which had afforded him so much pleasure 

 in amassing, and which furnished him with considerable valuable 

 material for faunistic and descriptive work, should find a per- 

 manent home in the Museum of his own country. It would 

 have been most regrettable if this magnificent collection had 

 been broken up, and its component parts distributed over the 

 face of the globe — a fate it would probably have met with except 

 for the kind interest in the matter shown by Mrs. Leech, who, 

 it may be added, had at all times encouraged her son in his 

 entomological studies. We have, therefore, very great pleasure 

 in tendering our most sincere thanks to the generous donor for 

 her valuable gift to the nation, and in doing this we can but 

 feel assured that we are giving expression to the feeling of all 

 British entomologists. 



We understand that the Museum authorities will publish 

 a Catalogue of the Butterfly collection, so that it is perhaps 

 only necessary to mention here that of Pihopalocera there are 

 rather more than eighteen thousand specimens, representing 

 some eleven hundred species, among which are over four hun- 

 dred male and female types of species described by Mr. Leech. 

 This collection of Palsearctic butterflies is very rich in Chinese 

 and Japanese species, and in local forms and aberrations of 

 European species. The European Heterocera number about 

 twenty-three thousand specimens, including some fine aberra- 

 tions and extensive series of the variable species. The collection 

 of Eastern Asian Moths, from which the Museum had already 

 made a selection, comprised nearly three thousand species, of 

 which about eight hundred were made known to science by 

 Mr. Leech. 



