34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 195 6 



16-20, 1956. During April 1956 Dr. Handley, with Mr. Paradiso as 

 assistant, made a collection of small mammals in the generally 

 neglected salt-marsh areas of the Middle Atlantic States. Particular 

 effort was made to secure material at Back Bay in southeastern Vir- 

 ginia, Assateague Island off Delmarva Peninsula, and Oceanville in 

 southern New Jersey. 



A grant from the American Philosophical Society enabled Dr. J. F. 

 Gates Clarke, curator of insects, to obtain larvae and rear moths of 

 the family Oecophoridae and to determine the host specificity of these 

 moths and their relationship to plants of the family Umbelliferae. 

 Specimens were collected and host observations were made at 71 sta- 

 tions mainly in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, as 

 well as at scattered localities in Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and Michigan. 



Dr. Ernest A. Lachner, associate curator of fishes, was awarded a 

 fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for the pur- 

 pose of advancing his research studies on tropical marine and North 

 American fresh-water fishes. Examination of type specimens and 

 other pertinent material will be made at various European museums. 

 Dr. Lachner left Washington for London on March 8, 1956. 



Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Bredin, of Greenville, Del., presented funds 

 to the Smithsonian Institution to finance a collecting expedition. 

 These funds were used to finance a Caribbean field study. The Smith- 

 sonian party comprised Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, leader, Dr. A. C. Smith, 

 Dr. J. F. Gates Clarke, and Dr. Fenner A. Chace, Jr. The expedition 

 left Trinidad on March 13, 1956, for visits to Grenada, several of the 

 Grenadines, and Martinique. Other stops included anchorages at 

 Dominica, Guadeloupe, Barbuda, Eedonda, Nevis, St. Christopher, 

 Virgin Gorda, and Tortola, and terminated at St. Croix. A number 

 of interesting observations of shore fauna, including shrimp com- 

 mensal with anemones, and windrows of red-crab megalops on the 

 beach were made. Several thousand crustaceans were collected by 

 Drs. Schmitt and Chace, as well as crinoids, starfish, sea-urchins, sea- 

 hares, and cephalopods. On arrival at Trinidad Dr. Smith, curator 

 of phanerogams, proceeded directly to the field station of the New 

 York Zoological Society at Simla, Arima Valley, where he spent five 

 days collecting plants on the crest and slopes of the northern range 

 and preparing the material. Botanical collections were made on 11 

 islands, and more than 4,000 specimens were prepared for herbarium 

 study. Dr. Clarke, curator of insects, traveled from Washington to 

 Dominica by airplane and collected insects there in the interval be- 

 tween March 8 and 28 and then joined the party on the schooner at 

 Roseau. Some 20,000 insects were obtained. V. E. B. Nicholson, cap- 

 tain of the Freelance, the schooner used by the expedition, was ex- 



