ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA., JUNE, 1921. 



Depositories of Type Material. 



In the minutes of the last Annual Meeting of the Entomolog- 

 ical Society of America, as published in a recent number of the 

 Annals of that Society, we find an interesting report of the 

 "Committee on U. S. National Museum." This report is di- 

 vided into three sections ; the first, detailing the activities of the 

 Committee in its efforts to secure more adequate appropriations 

 for the work of the Division of Insects of the United States 

 National Museum ; the second, asking for the support of mem- 

 bers; of the Society and of various related organizations to 

 assist in every way possible toward securing such desired ap- 

 propriations from Congress, and the third, an appeal for the 

 deposit of types in the Museum. 



With the first and second of these sections we find ourselves 

 in hearty accord. The U. S. National Museum, in all its divi- 

 sions, should be so adequately supported that no possible tem- 

 porary or permanent curtailment of appropriations to the vari- 

 ous departments of the federal government would, directly or 

 indirectly, affect the invaluable reference collections there de- 

 posited. Such is always a possibility to-day, as a very large part 

 of the supervisionary work on the collections of the Museum is 

 performed and maintained by other government bureaus, which 

 are vitally interested in the matter. The efforts of the Commit- 

 tee in endeavoring to secure adequate continuing financial sup- 

 port for the care and maintenance of the collections of the 

 Division of Insects is most laudable, and the NEWS gives its 

 hearty commendation and support. 



Relative to the deposit and centralization of types in the 

 Museum, differences of opinion may and do exist. Theoreti- 

 cally it would be best to have all types deposited in one great 

 center, or several centers, as the case might be. The natural 

 corollary of this would be that workers should similarly cen- 



180 



