60 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1913. 



Museum of Natural History, in conjunction with their investigation 

 of the fishes of Panama. Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, of the University 

 of Colorado, was present during a short time, makuig a study of the 

 scales of fishes, and specimens were lent to the American Museum of 

 Natural History and Leland Stanford Junior University. 



hiseds. — Most noteworthy among the accessions to this division 

 was a collection of about 15,000 forest insects, accompanied by 

 examples of their work and by copious notes, which was deposited by 

 the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station in order that it 

 might be accessible for the study of certain economic problems by the 

 Government. Some 3,600 insects, mostly from Great Britain and 

 North America, were presented by Mr. J. R. Malloch, of Washington, 

 and over 2,500 specimens were transferred by the U. S. Bureau of 

 Entomology. Eighty named bees, new to the collection and includ- 

 ing paratypes of 12 species, were donated by the Department of 

 Entomology of the University of Nebraska ; and 218 bees of the family 

 Mehponidse, also named and including 90 cotypes, were purchased 

 from Dr. H. Friese, of Schwerin, Germany. As a nucleus for the 

 series of insects in the f aunal exhibit of the District of Columbia a 

 collection of local beetles, numbering about 10,000 specimens, 

 remarkable for its completeness and excellence of preparation, was 

 acquired by purchase from Mrs. C. E. Burden, of Falls Church, Va. 



While the collections of the division have been kept in good con- 

 dition as regards preservation, it has not been possible to make the 

 progress desired in transferring the specimens from the old style of 

 drawers to those of the lately adopted standard pattern, specially 

 designed for their better protection from pests and dust, owing to 

 the lack of means for emplo3^ng a sufficient number of skilled prepara- 

 tors to properly expedite the work. The transferring during the year 

 was mainly restricted to the orders Odonata, Coleoptera, and Hymen- 

 optera. 



The curator of the division, Dr. L. O. Howard, collaborating with 

 two of his assistants. Dr. Harrison G. Dyar and Mr. Frederick Knab, 

 completed for the Carnegie Institution of Washington the monumental 

 work on the mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West 

 Indies, on which they have been engaged for some time. The asso- 

 ciate curator, Mr. J. C. Crawford, continued his studies of the Hjonen- 

 optera, and described a large number of new genera and species. 

 Mr. J. R. Malloch finished the preparation of an account of the dip- 

 terous family Phoridse, and Mr. A. A. Girault, a monograph of the 

 Signiphorinse, a subfamily of Hymenoptera. Many smaller detached 

 studies by the custodians of the various branches of the collections 

 are indicated by their titles in the bibliography at the end of this 

 report. Among the students who visited the division for the purpose 

 of examining material in furtherance of their researches were Mr. M. D. 



