Many of the models for Peale’s scientific illustrations probably survive today as specimens in the extant Peale Collection. A case in point is Peale’s painting for the above plate from volume 3 of Say’s American Entomology depicting the subspecies of the butterfly Oeneis melissa native to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Oeneis melissa semidea was described by Say in 1828 as a distinct species, Hipparchia semidea.The type specimen of O. semidea can be seen today in the Peale Collection. As far as we know, this is the only surviving lepidopteran type of Thomas Say, and one of the few extant Say insect types.