Sprague.J 374 [January 27, 



changed this way of describing insects. Another source of trouble 

 that we have to encounter is the almost total loss of all of the older 

 collections, either by insect enemies, or through a lack of true appre- 

 ciation of their great value by those who have had charge of them. 



The Say and Hentz collections have now hardly a specimen left, 

 and Randall's is lost. Dr. Harris' cabinet is in a much better con- 

 dition, and were it not that Mr. Randall often contributed to it, we 

 should be still further in the dark in relation to many of his described 

 species. Randall's descriptions, when viewed with our present 

 knowledge, are short, and not to the point; quite often color, and 

 those parts that have no specific value, being all we have to depend 

 upon. 



The beetles known as Randall's species, have long been a thorn in 

 the side of the thorough and systematic entomological student. For 

 years, as each new entomologist has come forward to take his place 

 among the specialists of this department of entomology, Say's, Har- 

 ris's and Randall's lost species have to a greater or less extent 

 interested him, and all new insects obtained were closely scanned, 

 hoping that in them the lost might be found. 



It has seemed to me that as Randall described his species in our 

 Journal, many of which were from this locality, others from the 

 neighboring State of Maine, that some one here should try and 

 rescue from oblivion the labor of this one of our early entomologists. 

 Typical collections of species inhabiting this vicinity, and described 

 here, will strike every naturalist at a glance as of special importance; 

 scarcely a beginning at forming such collections has as yet been made 

 in any department by this Society, the lack of which has been se- 

 riously felt by me as well as by others, and T feel specially called upon 

 to remedy as far as possible this difficulty. Therefore I have used my 

 leisure hours to collect together material for a complete series of 

 Randall's species, and make it a special typical collection for students 

 of this Society; and, further, if time and circumstances permit, to 

 extend my labor to Dr. Harris's types of Coleoptera, many of which 

 are not to be found in his private collection. The fact has been 

 forcibly brought to my mind that many of Randall's species, which 

 were then common, have become exceedingly rare, and perhaps some 

 are extinct. The same may be said of the species found in plenty by 

 Dr. Harris in Dorchester and Milton, the same ground having been 

 carefully and thoroughly gone over many times for the last ten years 

 by myself and others. When I undertook to form this collection I 



