When an insect taxonomist describes a new species, he customarily draws up the description from a single specimen. When he does that, he calls the specimen a holotype. If he has available a specimen of the other sex and has to give it a separate description from the holotype, he describes and designates it as an allotype. If the taxonomist has a series of specimens at the time he makes the description, all the remaining specimens are designated as paratypes. His purpose in all this is to provide an indisputable specimen of the species which he intends to describe.

The apparent structural differences between some insect species are exceedingly slight. It has happened often that a man has described a new species from a series of several specimens only to have some other person years later find that the series consisted of several species. Then the question arises : To which species in the series does the name belong which the original author gave? It is to prevent situations such as this that the practice of designating a holotype has come into being. Types (holotypes, allotypes, and paratypes) have served this purpose so well that insect taxonomists have come to depend on them. They have great scientific value and should be well cared for. In insect taxonomy no specimen is of any greater value than the holotype. Most reference and research collections include a considerable number of type specimens and the more type specimens an insect collection contains, the greater its value.

Primarily then, the reference and research collections are of the greatest value to the insect taxonomist. They are the indispensable material with which he works. They are of value to workers in the future who find in them a reservoir of material for study and comparison. Indirectly they are of great importance to the public, because all the information the public receives about insects is associated with the name. If the name is incorrect the public will be misinformed, and misinformation about insects may result in economic loss, in personal discomfort, in sickness, and even loss of life.

Among the large research and reference collections in the United States and Canada are the National Museum in Washington, D. C.; Canadian National Collection in Ottawa, Ontario; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass.; Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; Illinois Natural History Survey, Urbana; California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; Chicago Museum of Natural History; Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; University of Minnesota, St. Paul; Ohio State University, Columbus; University of Kansas, Lawrence; and the University Museum, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

THE UNIVERSITIES OR COLLEGES that have no reference or research collections often have collections that are used in courses in entomology and zoology. Teachers have found it needful to have enough specimens so that each student can have a specimen to study and examine under a microscope. A student can learn the orders and families of insects only by handling specimens and attempting to identify them; he must make a collection of his own or the teacher must furnish the specimens, both adult and immature, and samples of the injury the insect has caused. Sometimes, as a substitute or if the teaching is informal, the specimens are arranged in a permanent exhibit for use by more than one individual.

Another type of teaching collection is that arranged by extension workers and other entomologists who find small portable exhibits useful in acquainting the public with insect pests.

Sometimes when a private collection is offered for sale, say, or an inventory has to be made of an institutional collection it is necessary to put a monetary value on a collection. Some of the factors then involved are: The actual cost of obtaining specimens, including the collector's time and expenses, or the purchase price; the cost of the technical materials used in preparation of the specimens, such as pins, labels, trays, cork, storage cabinets, microscope slides, and chemicals; the labor in preparing the specimens; the number of holotype or type specimens in the collection; the rareness of the specimens; and the physical condition of the collection. No financial estimate, though, can place a value on the usefulness of collections that permit ready identification and so promptly unlock the store of existing knowledge about any species; neither can a financial estimate adequately assess the educational, cultural, and scientific values of collections. Those values are indeed high.

CLARENCE E. MICKEL is chief of the division of entomology and economic zoology in the University of Minnesota, which he joined in 1922. In 1930 he studied in Europe on a fellowship. He was secretary-treasurer of the Entomological Society of America in 1936-44 and President of the society in 1944-45. He was chosen President of the International Great Plains Conference of Entomologists in 1946.

Panorpa rufescens, a scorpionfly.