MARCH 19, 1921 proceedings: entomoIvOGIcal society 145 



Braconidae into somethng like order; also the Evaniidae, etc., and Dodd 

 has arranged our exotic Proctotrupidae. Morley has done portions of the 

 Ichneumonidae, and Morice has nearly completed the saw-flies. The exotic 

 Hymenoptera altogether occupy 70 cabinets now, which is a great change 

 since I first came here in 1905. But the collection is still a very small one 

 compared to what it ought to be, as from many regions we have no recent 

 material.' 



"The death of Mr. Meade-Waldo was a very severe blow to the Museum 

 and to hymenopterology. The most important accessions to the collection 

 of Hymenoptera are doubtless the collections obtained by Mr. Turner in 

 Australia, which are extremely rich in new and nteresting species. Mr. 

 Turner is now oflf to South Africa, where he is sure to make large and impor- 

 tant collections." 



In discussing this note Mr. Rohwer spoke of the Hymenoptera at the 

 Xational Museum, as follows: "While it is undesirable, as well as unprofit- 

 able, to make comparisons, I feel that the following remarks may be of some 

 interest at this time because of the short note b)^ Prof. Cockerell. 



"Four years before the Division of Insects of the National Museum was 

 formally started, and coincident with the time when Riley deposited his 

 collection in the old building of the National Museum, W. F. Kirby edited 

 his first volume of the Hymenoptera of the British Museum. This volume 

 dealt only with the saw-flies. Thirty years prior to that Frederick Smith 

 had catalogued and described the Aculeate Hymenoptera of the British Mu- 

 seum and had published his results in five volumes, extending from 1854 to 

 1857, as a catalogue of the hymenopterous insects. 



"The British Museum has developed naturally along the lines of a museum. 

 Their hymenopterous collections have been accumulated by collectors and 

 students of habits and, of course, they have amassed great quantities of ma- 

 terial, wasps, bees, and other Aculeates. The National IMuseum collection 

 on the other hand was developed because of and to support agriculture. 

 Its greatest advances have been made in parasitic groups, so where the British 

 ]Museum is weakest, the National Museum is strongest, and I think we can 

 say with assurance that the collection of parasitic hymenoptera in the Na- 

 tional Museum is excelled by none. It formed the basis of all of Ashmead's 

 monographs, and there is no institution whose collection of Chalcids can com- 

 pare in any way with that which has been amassed by agricultural entomol- 

 ogists in the United vStates. 



"The collection of Hymenoptera n the National IMuseum is not arranged 

 in as good order as we might wish because there are many more undetermined 

 specimens than there are determined specimens. About a year ago we made 

 a rather careful inventory of the adults and found that the collection con- 

 tained 17,638 species, of which 8,566 were represented by types. There are 

 131,906 determined specimens, and of the undetermined, 361,851. The total 

 number of spec mens in the Museum was approximately a half million when 

 we made our inventory a year ago. One feature which our collection has 

 which, I believe, is not developed to any degree in any other institution, is 

 the alcoholic collection of immature stages. We workers here feel sure that 

 there is much to be desired and there are many gaps which need filling, but 

 if we visit other institutions and see how little they have, we are forced to real- 

 ize that the alcoholic collection of immature stages is by far the best available 

 to students. This is especially true of the immature stages of the saw-flies. 



