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104
Vol.8: nos.3-4
LEPIDOPTERA LARVAE AND VUPJE TRANSFERRED FROM HARVARD M.C.Z. TO YALE UNIVERSITY
For several years we have concentrated on developing at Yale University a study and reference collection of Lepidoptera larvae and pupae, carefully preserved in alcohol. These are from all parts of the world and include species in all the major groups of Lepidoptera, although the Rhopalocera are especially well represented. It is a high satisfaction to announce that the entire collection of similarly preserved material from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University has been transferred to Yale and is being sorted into the Yale collection. The majority of the Harvard specimens were obtained during the 19th Century by LOUIS AGASSIZ, HERMAN HAGEN, Samuel H. Scudder, A. S. Packard, Jr., and W. H. Edwards. More than 60 vials of Lepidoptera had been collected and labelled by EDWARDS, presumably for SCUDDER. Thus they have considerable historical interest in addition to their taxo-nomic value. Among the more recent acquisitions were Latin American specimens preserved by Marston Bates and G. B. Fairchild.
The collection contained about 800 vials, about one-third of which have Rhopalocera. About one-half of the vials have North American specimens; one-fourth are of European origin.
We are grateful to our friends at Harvard for presenting us with this fine research material. We also feel that we are contributing by making it available for reference for all students of immature Lepidoptera. Proper care and arrangement of this collection proved to be impractical at Harvard, as Dr. DARLINGTON explains in the following statement which he asked us to publish. Such a cooperative arrangement as this is rare in the history of friendly relations between museums, and we are fortunate to be so favored.
CHARLES L. REMINGTON, Research Associate in Entomology,
Peabody Museum of Natural History,
Yale University, New Haven 11, Conn., U.S.A.
As Curator in Insects at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, I am responsible for maintaining an enormous collection of insects, for increasing it when possible, and for making it available for use. The staff here is capable, but very small. We are able to maintain the collection as a whole, but an occasional detail of it is beyond our power. One thing we have been unable to do is to make proper use of our old, unarranged, and largely unidentified collection of larvae of Lepidoptera in alcohol. Recently this collection was partly sorted by a competent young lepidopterist, and then I myself tried to weed out what was worthless and put the rest in order, but I could not do it. Therefore, with the Director's approval, I have turned this material over to Prof. REMINGTON for Yale University. The material transferred consists only of larvae and pupae in alcohol, which were kept separate from the main Lepidoptera collection. Inflated larvae and larvae in alcohol associated with adult specimens in the collection have not been transferred. Moreover, the arrangement with Prof. REMINGTON is that if any of the larvae turn out to be of primarily taxonomic importance — for example types of described species — they will be returned here.
I am publishing this note to make very clear the reason for the transfer. We transferred this material only after making a real effort to make it available for use here and finding that we could not, and because we thought that, incorporated into the large and growing collection of immature stages of Lepidoptera at Yale, it would be immediately available to all interested entomologists. We have a fine collection of Lepidoptera as well as of other orders of insects, we value it highly, and we intend to continue to maintain it, improve it, and make it useful.
P. J. Darlington, Jr.
Curator of Insects, Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University, Cambridge 38, Mass., U. S. A.