July-August, 19i5 



CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN 



Page 7 



MUSEUM-UNIVERSITY PROGRAM 

 OF GO-OPERATION RATIFIED 



Plans of the University of Chicago and 

 the Museum for co-operation in fields of 

 mutual interest have been ratified by the 

 Boards of Trustees of both institutions. 



Co-ordination will include teaching and 

 research in the sciences in which both 

 institutions are engaged, closer relation- 

 ships between staffs, a unified program to 

 build up and consolidate collections, and 

 experiments in visual education. 



Members of the two staffs will co-ordinate 

 efforts in fields of joint interest. Teaching 

 will be conducted where it can be done 

 most effectively, either at the Museum or 

 at the University. Collections will be con- 

 solidated, with the University donating or 

 loaning its materials. 



The agreement provides for consideration 

 of other areas of co-operation, including 

 award of fellowships in such studies as 

 anthropology, botany, paleontology, and 

 zoology, with the fellows dividing their time 

 between formal study in the University and 

 participation in Museum work. 



Co-operative arrangements with North- 

 western University have also been discussed 

 and a broad arrangement for their develop- 

 ment has been made. It is hoped that other 

 educational institutions in the Chicago re- 

 gion may be drawn into similar functional 

 relations with the Museum. 



BOTANICAL ADVENTURES 

 IN VENEZUELA 



The Department of Botany of the Chicago 

 Natural History Museum will benefit from a 

 recent expedition conducted in the mountain 

 ranges of the northeastern area of Venezuela 

 where little botanical collecting has pre- 

 viously been done. The expedition was 

 conducted by Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, 

 Assistant Curator of the Herbarium. 



Dr. Steyermark, who was on leave from 

 the Museum to perform special work for the 

 United States government as an agent of the 

 Board of Economic Warfare, recently com- 

 pleted that mission. Subsequently, he was 

 engaged by the Ministry of Agriculture of 

 Venezuela to conduct field work and research 

 on the botanical resources of that country. 



"I had a most interesting and successful 

 trip," Dr. Steyermark writes. "My 2,000 

 numbers include a set for the National 

 Herbarium in Caracas, and, in addition a 

 complete set for the Museum. ... I secured 

 a large number of trees, shrubs, and lianas, 

 as well as orchids, bromeliads, and aroids. 

 I had a large number of trees cut down 

 throughout the territory I visited in 

 the states of Sucre, Monagas, and Anzoa- 

 tegui, all in the Oriente of Venezuela. 



NO PREVIOUS COLLECTING 



"There has been practically no collecting 

 from this area previously, and about three- 

 fourths of the material represents species 



hitherto unknown from this part of Vene- 

 zuela. . . . 



"I climbed to the summit of all three 

 peaks of Cerro Turumiquire, the highest 

 mountain of the coastal cordillera in Vene- 

 zuela, and will have abundant material for 

 a forthcoming report on the flora of Turumi- 

 quire and surrounding cerros. I can also 

 report that I am the first botanist to have 

 climbed two other high peaks in that region, 

 namely, Cerro Negro and Cerro Peonia or 

 Pajaritos. The latter had a phenomenon 

 on its summit which may be unique in the 

 records of Venezuelan entomology. I refer 

 to the billions of semi-dormant hibernating 

 wasps covering the trees on the summit of 

 Cerro Peonia or Pajaritos. 



"When I first reached the summit, I saw 

 large dark brown masses of color in large 

 portions of the tree trunks, branches, 

 and among the leaves. At first they 

 resembled some of the epiphytic mosses or 

 hepaticae one often sees in cloud forests, 

 but upon closer inspection I was amazed 

 to find that they were masses of wasps 

 huddled together with their brown wings 

 folded and touching each other; their bodies 

 were prostrate over the trunk or branches. 



"rain OF wasps" 



"There were a large number of trees of 

 which I wished to secure specimens, but 

 the men were afraid to fell them because 

 every blow of the ax resulted in a rain of 

 wasps by the thousands. Many trees had 

 to be ignored because the entire trunk was 

 covered with the wasps. 



"The ones we did cut were selected ones 

 which had fewer (hundreds instead of 

 thousands or millions) wasps than the 

 others, but even these were dangerous, 

 because at every stroke of the ax down came 

 wasps by the handfuls. We got stung many 

 times. There was a dried up sphagnum bog 

 on this summit and I got stung trying to 

 grab specimens of terrestrial moss or sedges 

 and other herbs, because the wasps were 

 also in the moss on the ground and among 

 moss-covered branches. Everywhere one 

 walked on the summit among the bushes 

 and suffruticose Hypericum and melastoms 

 he would encounter wasps, because they 

 would be in dangling masses suspended 

 between the leaves. You cannot imagine a 

 rarer experience to befall a collector of 

 plants. It is the most unusual one I have 

 ever had. 



"planted" by birds 



"Another interesting experience I had 

 was in visiting the famous Guacharo cave 

 near Caripe, the one in which Humboldt 

 discovered and described the Guacharo 

 bird for the first time. It is the only cave- 

 inhabiting, nocturnal, frugivorous bird 

 known in the New World, and for many 

 years was known only from this and another 

 cave in Venezuela. Now many more caves 

 with these birds in Venezuela have been 

 discovered, and the distribution has been 



extended to Colombia, Peru, and some of 

 the West Indies. I collected thirteen species 

 of seeds in the cave, three of these being 

 palmae and most of the others lauraceae. 

 "The birds occur in large numbers in the 

 interior of the cave, nesting among the 

 declivities of the walls, leaving the cave at 

 night to seek trees having fruits with a soft 

 exocarp and mesocarp, and returning with 

 their mouths full to eat in the cave. The 

 seeds fall to the ground and there germinate, 

 after having been swallowed and expelled. 

 It was a rare experience, indeed, to collect 

 flowering plants in the dark interior of a 

 cave. I have been in many caves in Mis- 

 souri but this is the first time I've ever 

 botanized phanerogams existing in a cave 

 because of the birds which had brought 

 them there." 



NEW MEMBERS 



The following persons became Members 

 of the Museum during the period from 

 April 16 to June 15. 



Associate Members 



William H. Beckman, Stewart Boal, 

 Howard H. Darbo, David L. Harrington, 

 W. O. Kurtz, Dr. Delia M. MacMuUen, 

 Michael A. Powills, George J. Renaldi, 

 Hugh Rodman, Henry B. Steele, Jr., 

 Walter A. Wade, Peter L. Wentz, Percy 

 Wilson. 



Sustaining Members 

 David L. Shillinglaw 

 Annual Members 

 Themis Anagnost, Jospeh P. Antonow, 

 Mrs. Jacob M. Arvey, Mrs. D. Arthur Baer, 

 Francis G. Bichl, Jr., Mrs. Harry K. 

 Blitzsten, W. J. Broderick, Dr. Allan G. 

 Brodie, Abraham J. Clonick, E. A. Conaway, 

 Victor Conquest, S. H. Crandell, James J. 

 Daly, Mrs. Orville A. Dee, Karl A. Dingel- 

 dein. Miss Mima L. Donaldson, J. M. 

 Doroshaw, Mrs. Seth C. Drake, John J. 

 Dubek, Jr., Erwin F. Dygert, Edward L. 

 Eckert, Mrs. William T. Faricy, Mrs. John 

 N. Franz, Richard F. Friedeman, John W. 

 Gatenby, Jr., Frank E. Gettleman, Mrs. 

 Laura E. Gresham, Irwin D. Groak, Sher- 

 wood V. Hinman, Barney E. Hokin, 

 Samuel E. Hokin, James P. Hume, Robert 

 M. Jackman, Bernard F. Johnston, Elmer 

 H. Karp, Nathan D. Kay, S. J. Klapman, 

 Mrs. Robert E. Langford, Ray S. Launder, 

 Walter Linke, Joseph Mack, Mrs. James 

 Leo Mayer, A. G. McLaughlin, Donald 

 McC. McNamara, William Nunne, Franklin 

 R. Overmyer, Mrs. Magdalene M. Pershing, 

 Dr. Algot G. Person, Mrs. J. L. Petrelli, 

 S. R. Pletz, Morris A. Poll, Alfred J. Pon- 

 drom. Dr. Otto Porges, Dr. William E. 

 Putz, J. K. Roberts, Emil B. Salberg, Allen 

 C. Sauter, Rev. R. G. Schell, Frederick 

 Schenck, Miss Nina E. Schlatter, Miss Elsie 

 Schobinger, L. H. Schuyler, Donald W. 

 Sharpe, Harry F. Shea, Edward W. Shepherd, 

 William B. Stroup, Dr. Eugene A. Thayer, 

 Martin Topaz, Dr. Kenneth C. Washburn, 

 Charles K. Wassell, C. W. Waterman, Miss 

 Ellen P. Wheelock, Holmes Wilson, Harvey 

 E. Wood, Henry Paull Wood, John W. 

 Wood. 



