REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 65 



explorations on Grenada Island; Dr. W, L. Abbott collected in Mada- 

 gascar and Turkestan; the Chanler-IIobnel exi)edition to Jombene 

 Range, East Africa, collected insects and other material; the United 

 States Department of Agriculture sent Messrs. E. A. Schwarz and 

 C n. Tyler Townseud to Brownsville, Tex., to investigate the Cotton 

 Boll- weevil; Dr. Leonhard Stejneger visited the Commander Islands 

 and Kamchatka and incidentally collected a number of insects; Mr. 

 F. W. True, of the United States National Museum, and Mr. D. W. 

 Prentiss, jr., of this city, visited the Pribilof Islands while temporarily 

 in the service of the United States Fish Commission; Prof. C. Y. Riley 

 and Mr. H. G. Hubbard went to the West Indies in the spring of 1895; 

 Mr. W J McUree collected during his trip to Tiburan Island, Gulf of 

 California, and Messrs. E. A. Schwarz and H. G. Hubbard collected in 

 the vicinity of Salt Lake, Utah. 



Material has been sent from the department to fourteen individuals, 

 including several prominent specialists in various orders. In some cases 

 the specimens were transmitted for identification, and in other instances 

 they were desired for comj)arison. A few investigators not connected 

 with the Museum have made use of the collections in the department. 



The honorary curator mentions the names of eight correspondents who 

 have made contributions and who have received publications in partial 

 exchange. Exchanges of specimens have been arranged with nine 

 other individuals in this country and abroad. The correspondents who 

 have sent material for identification which has been retained in the 

 Museum number fourteen. 



Thirty- three papers based upon Museum material have been published 

 during the year by members of the staff, and seventeen by other 

 collaborators. The titles of these papers appear in the Bibliography 

 (Appendix iv). A very large number of new species are described. 

 The names of these are given in the supplements to the Bibliography. 



About 7,000 specimens were added during the year, exclusive of 

 the Marx collection, which was received on deposit and embraces 

 about 10,000 specimens. The last catalogue entry on June 30, 1895, 

 was 1584, and the last on June 30, 1896, 1789, giving 205 entries for the 

 year. 



DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 



This department remains in charge of Mr. Richard Rathbun as hon- 

 orary curator, with Mr. James E. Benedict and Miss Mary J. Rathbun 

 as assistant curators. 



During the year a study of the Annelids of the west coast of tropical 

 America was commenced, and work on a monograph of the American 

 Brachyura and special researches on the genera Pseudothdpliusa and 

 Sesarma have been carried on. Mr. Benedict made a study of some new 

 soecies of blind Crustacea taken from an artesian well in San Marcos, 



NAT MUS 90 5 



