RESEARCH COLLECTIONS 6 I 



types of about 2800 species, all catalogued, except those of the John- 

 son collection. There is not much recent material from the western 

 states, and the exotic collection is very weak and undetermined ex- 

 cept for recent Australian material, while the Antillean series is the 

 best. There is a good European collection. 



In the Hymenoptera we have a fair proportion of the larger 

 species, but the collection of micro- and parasitic Hymenoptera is 

 very weak, with the exception of the Cynipidae. Thanks to Dr. 

 Wheeler, we have the best collection of ants in existence, and the 

 Psammocharidae and Philanthidae are good and increasing in value. 

 The Pavil Herbst collection of Chilian Hymenoptera gives us a fine 

 series from that country, otherwise the collection of exotic Hymenop- 

 tera, except for the ants, is not much better than the Diptera. There 

 are fully 1200 types nearly all catalogued. 



The Hemiptera is the weakest (of the large orders) in typical ma- 

 terial, there being hardly more than 200 types. There is a con- 

 siderable amount of United States material, largely of Banks and 

 Morse collecting. For the exotics there is a large amount of ma- 

 terial, mostly unstudied. The Meyer-Diir European collection is 

 very good and has some types. 



In the Orthoptera there are the rich collections of Scudder and 

 Morse, about 1000 types. The exotic forms are numerous but mostly 

 unnamed and unarranged. There is a generic card index for the 

 Nearctic portion. 



In Neuroptera there are the Hagen and Banks collections, now 

 joined and forming probably the finest collection in the world, in- 

 cluding about 2500 types. This is in numbered boxes and there is a 

 generic card index. In the exotic Odonata there is quite a lot of un- 

 named material. The collection is growing steadily by original work 

 as well as by exchanges and gifts. 



In the smaller orders the collections of Thysanura and CoUembola 

 have the types of Packard and Banks and some of Folsom and Mac- 

 Gillivray. It is doubtless as good as any museum collection in the 

 country. In the Anoplura, Mallophaga, Siphonaptera, and Thy- 

 sanoptera, our collections are poor, as in most museums. 



The Arachnida is the best collection in America, with about 2700 

 types. It contains the Emerton, Peckham, Bryant and Banks collec- 

 tions and many of Chamberlin's types. The spiders are in numbered 



