60 EEPORT OF NATIONAL, MUSEUM, 1923. 



tion, the turtles and large snakes, formerly stored in copper tanks 

 which frequently sprung a leak and flooded the floor, have all been 

 transferred to stone crocks and card-catalogued in the same manner 

 as the other specimens. This will be a very great help in locating 

 these big specimens when they are required for study purposes. As 

 many as possible of the cork-stoppered bottles have been replaced 

 by glass-stoppered jars, but the task is by no means completed owing 

 to the difficulty of securing the glass-stoppered jars in sufficient quan- 

 tities. The laborer has finished the annual washing and refilling of 

 all the jars in the storage room. The present condition of the col- 

 lections is very good. 



The collections in the division of fishes have been very carefully 

 examined, the containers refilled when necessary and many labels 

 restored, jars and shelves kept clean and new material installed from 

 time to time as study of same was completed. Twenty sets of dupli- 

 cate fishes have been prepared for distribution to museums, univer- 

 sities and other institutions of importance. These sets contain 132 

 specimens each and are more comprehensive than our regular edu- 

 cational series. Condition reported to be excellent. 



The collection of insects has received during the year most of the 

 time of 15 entomologists and a fluctuating number of preparators, 

 usually about 25 people in all. With so many workers, a large 

 amount of progress has been made as in previous years in studying 

 and arranging the collection. The principal retarding element in 

 this work has been a lack of trays and insect drawers. Most of the 

 staff have been more delayed by lack of trays, but those who use the 

 cork-lined drawers have been delayed on account of a shortage of 

 these. On the whole, however, the work has progressed about as 

 usual. The report of Doctor Ewing for the year shows that in the 

 order of Anoplura (the sucking lice) the collection has been greatly 

 enlarged and improved since he took charge of it in 1920. At the 

 beginning of his work there were only 57 slides representing not over 

 10 species, and man}'' of these slides were in poor condition and had 

 to be remounted. At the present time there are in the collection 

 368 slides, representing 107 species, many being paratypes of the 

 recent work of Prof. G. F. Ferris. All but seven of the 32 known 

 genera of the world are represented in the collection. The number 

 of slides returned by Professor Ferris is 109. Doctor Boving reports 

 that the entire collection of beetle larvae from Europe, number 540 

 species, has been revised and new labels have been made with the 

 data uniformly arranged and the names given in conformity with 

 nomenclature of the latest European catalogue. The first work on 

 this collection was done in 1913. The work of transferring the 

 Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, and Microlepidop- 



