10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 6 



returned to the United States National Museum for his final endeav- 

 ors. These are in part embodied in a paper entitled "The Fresh- 

 Water and Terrestrial Mollusca of Northern Asia", published in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 58, pt. 3, no. 24, 

 pp. 605-695, pis. 1-5, figs. 1-8, 1935-36. In this he describes the 

 species collected by him and discusses their ecologic relationship. 



The region embraced in this work includes the greater part of con- 

 tinental Asia north of latitude 50°, excepting outer Mongolia and 

 Manchuria, and the Lake Baikal area with its peculiar fauna. In 

 the region covered 67 species and subspecies were obtained and exam- 

 ined in detail. A certain number of forms are held in abeyance, to 

 be discussed in a final report, upon the preparation of which Dr. 

 Mozley is now engaged. 



DR. BLACKWELDB2l'S STUDY OF THE STAPHYLINID FAUNA OF THE WEST INDIES 



The Walter Rathbone Bacon Scholarship was awarded in June 

 1935 to Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder, of Stanford University, Cali- 

 fornia. In his application for this scholarship the successful candi- 

 date indicated that his project should consist of a study of the 

 staphylinid fauna of the West Indies, with especial reference to the 

 subfamily Tachyporinae. 



Accordingly Dr. Blackwelder set sail from New York late in June 

 and conunenced the field work necessary for the completion of the 

 project. In succession he has visited the islands of Jamaica, Gaude- 

 loupe, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Thomas, Trinidad, To- 

 bago, Grenada, Caracou, St. Vincent, Union, Barbados, St. Lucia, 

 Martinique, Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Depend- 

 ing upon the size of the islands and the opportunities for collecting. 

 Dr. Blackwelder has spent a longer or shorter time on each of these 

 islands. 



During the coming 6 months the islands of the Greater Antilles 

 will be revisited, the second visit coming at a different time of year 

 from the first, in that way making it possible to get species which 

 were not found at the first attempt. 



The results of his trip so far, as shown in his montlily reports, have 

 been gratifying, many thousands of Staphylinidae having been 

 already obtained, together with material in other groups of the animal 

 kingdom. Material other than Staphylinidae has been of the Coleop- 

 tera, arachnids, diplopods, chilopods, and birds. 



At the end of his field work in the West Indies it is intended that 

 Dr. Blackwelder will return to Washington, there to prepare a series 

 of the species which he has collected and which he will take to the 

 British Museum for comparison with the types of described West 

 Indian species. Upon his return from the British Museum Dr. Black- 



