314 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [xxxii. '21 



Notes and Ne\vs. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL GLEANINGS FROM ALL QUARTERS OF 



THE GLOBE 



Flower Visits of Xylota chalybea Wd. (Diptera, Syrphidae). 

 In the "Handbook of Flower Pollination," / : 375, citation 40, Davis 

 states, evidently on authority of Graenicher, that some Syrphids do not 

 visit flowers, and mentions Xylota chalybea as an example. In Knuth's 

 "Handbuch der Bliitenbiologie," III, 2: 390, of which Davis' work is a 

 translation, this fly is mentioned as a visitor of HydrophyHum appendi- 

 cnlatum and Viburnum pubesccns. 1 have also taken it on flowers of 

 Rosa humilis and R. sctigcra. CHARLES ROBERTSON, Carlinville, Illinois. 



On the Deposition of Type Material. 



In the editorial on the deposition of type material by J. A. G. R. 

 in the June, 1921, number of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS, certain features, 

 criticising one of the suggestions in the last report of the Committees on 

 the U. S. National Museum of the two national entomological societies, 

 calls for a statement, especially since certain statements are over- 

 drawn and might convey an incorrect impression. 



Our committees were appointed to assist in developing the U. S. 

 National Museum as a truly National Institution for the advancement 

 of entomology in general and to this end should have the unhampered 

 support of the entire entomological fraternity. The National Museum 

 is the museum which should and does logically represent the United 

 States and, in co-operation with the federal Bureau of Entomology, 

 undertakes to identify insects, both native and exotic, for all the peopl<; 

 of the United States. Aside from this service which is not attempted 

 by any other similar institution, the National Museum, because of its 

 location and associations, has a larger staff of workers, collaborators, 

 and visiting students than is likely to be assembled by an endowed insti- 

 tution. The scope of the work of the Museum is national and the com- 

 mittees have maintained that the entomologists of the United States 

 should consider it as such and insist on making it such by depositing 

 types and cotypes there rather than in private and small institutional 

 collections. It was not expected, nor intended, by the committee that a 

 few of the larger institutions be deprived of types but it is of the opinion 

 that the type depositories should be reduced to as few as possible. It 

 was believed that private collections and the majority of state institu- 

 tions are not the best places to deposit types and that the types in these 

 collections, particularly in the state institutions which have been so 

 bountifully helped by the National Museum, should be deposited in the 

 National Museum for safe keeping. 



The plan proposed by the National Museum of building up collec- 

 tions as outlined in the committee report under discussion is in itself 

 a valuable feature which we believe no other institution has adopted. 



