22S NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



one hundred thousand different forms or stages — all liable to attract 

 notice and not a few capable of inflicting serious losses in one way or 

 another, and for this reason legitimate subjects of inquiry and 

 investigation. 



The richness and variety of insect life is illustrated in the state 

 exhibit collection by the brilliantly colored bird butterflies, some with 

 a wing spread of over six inches and others noteworthy because of 

 their gorgeous purple, green, blue and golden hues, while the group 

 of Morphos shows a brilliant iridescence equaling that of the gayest 

 humming birds and unrivaled elsewhere in nature. There is also the 

 dull-colored bird-sized Brazilian moth with a wing spread of nine 

 inches, the giant grasshopper of Panama with its wings spanning 

 eight inches and the tropical walking stick with a stretch of sixteen 

 inches from the tip of the forelegs to the posterior extremity of the 

 body. The giant rhinoceros beetle, relatively elephantine in pro- 

 portion, measures six inches from tip to tip, while a large wocd- 

 boring beetle has feelers or antennae eight inches long. These are 

 marked exceptions and present strong contrasts to the small moths, 

 perfect in every way, frequently exquisitely colored, and with a wing 

 spread of only one-fourth of an inch or less, or the tiny gall midges, 

 some with a length of less than one-fiftieth of an inch. 



The exhibit collection with its ten thousand specimens suggests 

 the size of the state collection with its 170,000 specimens, accessible 

 to students and representing all the well-known insects and those of 

 many groups, which ordinarily escape attention. They have been 

 assembled during a period of forty years and are invaluable not only 

 because of the ntimerous species represented but on account of the 

 many associated records, the latter permitting one to turn to the 

 collection and read with its assistance of early abundance and injury. 

 There are large series of insects so minute or fragile that they must be 

 mounted on glass slides before they can be studied and over ten thou- 

 sand such preparations, indestructible as the amber embedded 

 insects of geologic time, give some idea of the enormous amount of 

 labor necessary to create such a collection. We have in this large 

 assemblage nearly two thousand specimens of grasshoppers and their 

 allies, about one thousand of the large and handsome dragon flies, 

 over twelve thousand true bugs, over thirty thousand butter- 

 flies and moths, probably as many if not more flies of various 

 kinds, many very minute, over forty thousand beetles and some 

 ten thousand bees, wasps and their associates. The above figures 

 include two notable collections, namely that of the late W. W. Hill, 

 of Albany, comprising some ten thousand specimens of butterflies 



