18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1955 



already available on the breeding dates of Panamanian birds. A de- 

 posit made by the Smithsonian Institution comprised 959 skins, 64 

 skeletons, 2 alcoholic specimens, and 1 set of eggs collected by Dr. A. 

 Wetmore. The National Geographic Society presented a geographic- 

 ally important collection of 131 birds obtained in French Equatorial 

 Africa by Yv^alter A. Weber. 



A considerable number of valuable herpetological specimens were 

 accessioned as gifts : A type and 18 para types of a new species of frog 

 taken in Jamaica by Dr. W. Gardner Lynn ; 119 reptiles and amphib- 

 ians from Virginia, including a type and paratypes of a new species of 

 salamander, from Kichaid L. Hoffman ; 8 reptiles from Puttur, Chit- 

 toor District, South India, including a genus and three species not for- 

 merly contained in the Museum collection, presented by Eev. Erwin 

 Chell. A transfer from the Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 at 

 Cairo, yielded 390 Egyptian reptiles and amphibians. 



The largest collection of fishes received during the year consisted 

 of 2,341 specimens from fresh-water streams in the southeastern United 

 States collected for the Museum by Dr. Ernest A. Laclmer and Frank 

 J. Schwartz. Another large gift was composed of 1,813 reef fishes 

 collected in the Gilbert Islands by the donor, Jolm Randall. Addi- 

 tional gifts included the holotype of a new scorpaenid fish from the 

 eastern Pacific from Jolm E. Fitch ; and the holotype of a new Mono- 

 centi'is fi'om Mas-a-Tierra Island from Dr. Edwyn P. Reed, Valpa- 

 raiso, Chile. The IT. S. Fish and Wildlife Service transferred to the 

 Museum the most important Atlantic collection received in several 

 years consisting of 983 fishes obtained by George C. Miller in Liberia. 

 Through exchange with other institutions the IMuseum received 6 

 paratypes of cyprinids from Mexico through Dr. Jose Alvarez, Escuela 

 Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas ; the paratype of a f rogfish from the 

 Chicago Natural History Museum through Loren P. Woods; and 3 

 paratypes of a Mexican catfish from the Instituto Mexicano de Re- 

 cursos Naturales Renovables, through Dr. Jorge Caranza. 



One of the most valuable acquisitions of insects received was the 

 W. M. Mann collection consisting of 136,288 specimens of which over 

 116,000 are ants. Approximately 700 types and hundreds of species of 

 ants from many areas in the world not previously represented in 

 Washington were included in this group. Among the important trans- 

 fers from the U. S. Department of Agriculture was the S. W. Bromley 

 collection of well over 35,000 insect specimens. This accession, rich 

 in material representative of the dipterous family Asilidae, places 

 the Museum high on the list of institutions possessing extensive col- 

 lections of the-se flies. Another transfer included 34,258 entomologi- 

 cal specimens from the Department's Laboratoiy of Forest Insects, 

 New Haven, Conn. Over 9,000 medically important black flies were 



