24 



REPORT ON THE ENTOMOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 



By Dr. H. A. Hagen. 



The collection of North American Coleoptera, from the late 

 Dr. John L. Le Conte, of Philadelphia, Pa., — bequeathed to 

 the Museum, — is the most prominent addition. The collection 

 fills three cabinets, with two hundred and eight boxes, and 

 thirty-three larger boxes besides, seven of them not yet deliv- 

 ered. The collection represents the well-used tool of a hard 

 and incessant worker. 



The collection is indeed very large and important, and has 

 been carefully compared with the Doctor's works by the Assist- 

 ant through the whole month of August. Of the types thirteen 

 are wanting : two Mexican species given by the Doctor to 

 the Philadelphia Entomological Society ; two were lost on the 

 journey to Europe ; eight, recognized later as synonyms, are 

 probably present, but without label; one, Myodites Zeschi,' is 

 not yet found. 



With this collection are now returned to the Museum the 

 types of Melsheimer, Ziegler, and Say, selected by Dr. J. L. 

 Le Conte from the collections of Melsheimer and Ziegler when 

 they were purchased for the Museum. 



In the printed catalogue, every species and the number of 

 specimens have been checked off by the Assistant as a provis- 

 ional catalogue. The full number cannot be given before the 

 whole collection is delivered. 



A collection of the early stages of Lepidoptera, two hundred 

 and twenty species, all new to the Museum, was bought from 

 Dr. Staudinger, Dresden, Saxony. A new arrangement of the 

 biological collection of the Lepidoptera was made necessary by 

 this addition. This part fills now seven cabinets, with one hun- 

 dred and twenty-six boxes. The biological collection of Lepi- 

 doptera is certainly the richest of this kind in existence. 



