genera and about twenty new species. Curator Wenzel has also 

 prepared several short papers on histerid beetles from the Masca- 

 rene Islands and commenced a study of the bat flies (family Streb- 

 lidae) of Panama in collaboration with Captain Vernon J. Tipton. 



Associate Curator Dybas has made good progress on his re- 

 vision of the Limulodidae, a family of minute beetles that live 

 mostly with army ants in the American tropics. His two papers 

 on the population ecology of periodical cicadas, based on data 

 gathered in 1956, are being readied for publication (Curator Davis 

 is co-author of one and Dr. Monte Lloyd, currently at Oxford 

 University, is co-author of the other). He completed a paper de- 

 scribing a new genus of blind ptiliid beetle from a bat cave in 

 South Africa. Research Associate Charles H. Seevers continued 

 work on his monograph on the rove beetles that live with army 

 and driver ants. Associate Harry G. Nelson studied the classifi- 

 cation of dryopoid water beetles of the genus Elsianus. Associate 

 Lillian A. Ross continued her study of spiders. 



Division of Lower Invertebrates. Curator Emeritus Haas 

 published several short papers on various phases of mollusks this 

 year and studied, with Curator Solem, a collection from British 

 Honduras. Curator Solem saw publication by the Museum of his 

 monograph on New Hebridean nonmarine mollusks with essay on 

 zoogeography of these land and fresh-water snails. Additional pub- 

 lications dealt with New Hebridean marine mollusks and Mexican 

 and Pacific inland landsnails (see page 106) . New research projects 

 resulted in completion of his studies of Central and South Amer- 

 ican Pomatiasid landsnails and of Venezuelan material from Genoa 

 Museum and partial completion of studies on more New Hebridean 

 material and on hydrobiid snails from Lake Pontchartrain, Loui- 

 siana. Assistant Ernest J. Roscoe, who joined the staff late in the 

 year, continued studies on nonmarine recent and Pleistocene mol- 

 lusks from the Great Basin area of North America. 



Division of Anatomy. Curator Davis continued his studies 

 of the comparative anatomy and evolution of the Carnivora. In 

 collaboration with Associate Waldemar Meister he began a study 

 of the placenta and fetal membranes of the hedgehog and con- 

 tinued a study of the fluorescence of hair in rats (genus Rattus) 

 in collaboration with Dr. Gerhart Rebell of Colgate Biological 

 Research Division. Curator Davis also prepared the articles "Mam- 

 mal" and "Cat" for a revision of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 

 and thirty-seven articles on mammals for the new McGraw-Hill 

 Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Research Associate R. M. 

 Strong continued his studies on the anatomy of birds. 



70 



