Mr. Otto Meske's Collection of Lepidoptera. 219 



family, embracing the large insects popularly known as 

 hawk moths, from their rapid flight, or humming-bird 

 moths, from their method of taking their food while 

 hovering over the blossoms with rapidly vibrating wings. 

 Of the forty-one species of sphinges known to occur in the 

 state of New York, of the seventy-six North American 

 ones, only two are unrepresented in this collection, viz : 

 Darapsa versicolor and Ellema pineum. It contains a fine 

 example of the rare Sphinx luscitiosa, captured the present 

 year within the city limits, not to be found, I believe, in a 

 half-dozen collections in the world. In illustration of the 

 intensity with which such rarities as these are coveted, I 

 may be pardoned for quoting from a letter lately received 

 by me from Dr. Boisduval, to whom I have before referred, 

 a well-known entomological author, who has just completed 

 his Monograph of the SpMngidce, a work upon which he 

 has been engaged for the last twenty years. He says : 

 " I believe that I shall die without having seen Sphinx 

 versicolor and luscitiosa. That I might have this happiness, 

 I have fervently prayed to all the saints in Paradise, but 

 all have been deaf to my cry." 



The Catocalas, of which you have a fine display before 

 you, are very fully represented in the collection. It is a 

 noctuid genus of large and very showy moths, having their 

 hind wings beautifully colored in various shades of yellow 

 and of red, banded and bordered with black ; in one section 

 of the genus the hind wings are black throughout on their 

 upper surface. North America appears to be the favored 

 home of the genus. All of Europe catalogues but twenty- 

 three species, while we have already Seventy-three 1 Ameri- 

 can ones described. New forms from the west are of fre- 

 quent occurrence, and occasionally an undescribed species is 

 detected even in our well-explored section of the country, 

 as was lately the case with a distinct form captured on a 



1 At the time of printing (Feb., 18T5), eighty-three species are catalogued. 



