November 20, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



445 



ENTOMOLOGY IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Although the department of insects in the 

 national museum was organized three years ago, 

 Uttle has hitherto been attempted beyond the care- 

 taking necessary for the preservation of the ma- 

 terial already on hand ; the honorary (or unpaid) 

 curator of the department. Dr. C. V. Riley, having 

 had comparatively httle aid from the museum 

 appropriation in the matter of construction of 

 cases or the employment of assistants. At the 

 beginning of the present fiscal year a salaried 

 assistant-curatorship was estabhshed, to which 

 ]Mr. John B. Smith was appointed. Additional 

 accommodations in the laboratory and exhibition 

 hall have been provided, and the study-collections 

 and the exhibition series are now being rapidly 

 extended. 



In October Dr. C. V. Eiley formally presented 

 to the museum his private collection of North 

 American insects, representing the fruits of his 

 own labors in collecting and study for over 

 twenty-five years. This collection contains over 

 20,000 species, represented by over 115,000 pinned 

 specimens, and much additional material unpinned 

 and in alcohol. 



This generous gift to the government has long 

 been contemplated by Dr. Riley, whose ambition 

 it is to be, so far as possible, instrumental in form- 

 ing a national collection of insects, and with the 

 behef that his collection will form an excellent 

 nucleus for future accumulations. In his letter of 

 presentation he remarks, — 



" AVhile the future of any institution dependent 

 on congressional support may not be so certain as 

 that of one supported by endowment, I make this 

 donation in the firm behef and full confidence 

 that the national museum is already so weU estab- 

 lished in public estimation that it must inevitably 

 grow until it shall rival and ultimately surpass 

 other institutions in this country or the world 

 as a repository of natural history collections. 



'•If there shall in the future result the concen- 

 trating here at the national capital of the extensive 

 entomological material which naturally comes 

 here, and which in the past has been scattered 

 among speciahsts in all parts of the country, so 

 that in the future the student may find valuable 

 material to further his work iu any order, I shall 

 feel amply rewarded for the action I have taken." 



A recent census of the national collection of 

 insects has been taken, the specimens in. each box 

 having been counted. A summary of the results 

 follows : — 



The collection of Dr. C. V. Riley.— This collec- 

 tion contains the following pinned and mounted 

 specimens : 



Boxes. Specimens. Species. 



Hymenoptera 66 24,796 2,650 



Coleoptera 127 43,613 6,.5.58 



Lepidoptera 338 17,098 2.3n8 



Diptera 21 5,646 699 



Hemiptera 59 8,862 1,184 



Orthoptera.... 64 6,903 560 



Neuroptera 14 868 169 



Arachnida and Myriopoda.... 2 425 110 



Insect architecture 16 1,080 178 



Miscell. (not yet arranged).... 28 1,610 178 



Galls and gallinsects 31 4,152 7.34 



Total, pinned 766 115,0.58 15,328 



The collection also contains some 2,850 vials of 

 alcoholic material, chiefly of the adolescent states 

 of insects, ia many cases several species being con- 

 tained in a single vial. The early states of the 

 minuter insects are mounted in balsam on slides, 

 of which the collection contains upward of 3,000, 

 most of the slides holding the contents of tliree 

 cover-glasses. 



The mounted specimens are aU duly classified 

 and labelled, and in excellent order and preserva- 

 tion. The labels include notes as to locahty and 

 food-habit, and are also in many cases numbered 

 to correspond to detailed notes as to adolescent 

 states and habits. The collection embraces few 

 exotic species, and is more particularly rich in 

 biological material, containing more blown and 

 alcoholic larvae and pupae in connection with then- 

 imagos than perhaps any other collection of North 

 American insects. Including the unarranged and 

 alcoholic material not connected with the pinned 

 specimens, there are over 20,000 species in the col- 

 lection. 



Collection of the department of agriculture. — 

 This collection comprises some 500 folding boxes, 

 and 123 odd boxes, many of them but partly filled, 

 and duplicating in a great measure those in the 

 Riley collection. It also contains a large assort- 

 ment of slides and alcohohc specimens accumulated 

 during the past seven years. 



Three hundred of the folding boxes contain a 

 tolerable, classified collection, chiefly of Coleoptera 

 and Lepidoptera. The other boxes contain all the 

 more recent material collected for, or reared at, the 

 department, and include the Brazflian collection 

 of Dr. J. C. Branner and Mr. Albert Koebele. 

 This material is separated by orders, but not yet 

 carefully worked over or classified. They also 

 include some few purchases from Messrs. H. K. 

 Morrison and Wm. Wittfeld, the exotic Coleoptera 

 from the administrators of the Belfrage estate, and 

 the Burgess collection of Diptera. 



This collection includes many undescribed species 

 in all orders ; and a rough estimate indicates that 

 there are about 50,000 specimens, and probably 

 5,000 species, mostly exotic, not in the Riley 

 collection. 



The collection of the national museum proper. 

 — This comprises all the material received during 



