34 ANXTJAL EEPORT SMITHSOITIAN" INSTTTUTION, 1931 



Suifii, and forwarded to the National Museum large and important 

 collections numbering in all 62,000 specimens, the greater part con- 

 sisting of insects. His main trip during 1930 was an excursion into 

 the unknown and difficult country south of Tatsienlu. 



Dr. J. M. Aldrich, in continuation of work which has extended 

 over a period of many years, spent part of June and July, 1930, in 

 making collections of Diptera in Idaho, Washington, California, and 

 Colorado. He visited many type localities, and his collections for 

 this season include a larger number of interesting forms than he has 

 obtained before in a like period in the United States. 



Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt continued his investigations of the marine 

 fauna at the Carnegie Marine Biological Station, Tortugas, Fla., 

 from July 9 to August 8, 1930, through the cooperation of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, undertaking this year a pre- 

 liminary investigation of the deeper water readily accessible to the 

 laboratory. Among the prizes brought back were three specimens 

 of the giant isopod Bathynomus^ the largest specimen being 10% 

 inches long, and a new portunid crab of the genus Benthocascon, a 

 group heretofore known only from a single specimen taken in the 

 Andaman Sea, Indian Ocean. 



Dr. H. C. Kellers, United States Navy, through the courtesy of 

 the Naval Observatory and the friendly cooperation of the Navy 

 Department, was again detailed to act as representative of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for the purpose of making biological collec- 

 tions during the United States Naval Observatory eclipse expedition 

 to Niuafoou, nicknamed " Tin-can Island," a partly submerged vol- 

 canic crater situated between Samoa and Fiji. His collections in- 

 clude 100 bird skins and over 7,000 alcoholic specimens of various 

 kinds. 



Ernest G. Holt, under the auspices of the National Geographic 

 Society, continued explorations along the Venezuelan-Brazilian 

 boundary and returned with valuable collections, principally of birds, 

 reptiles, amphibians, and plants which have been presented to the 

 National Museum by the society. In the preliminary examination 

 of this material many forms not before represented in our collections 

 have been found. The material is particularly welcome, as the 

 Museum has previously had but little from this region. 



Because of association in the work of the National Herbarium 

 it is proper to mention field investigations by Mrs. Agnes Chase, of 

 the Department of Agriculture, who collected in the Eastern Shore 

 region of Maryland for the purpose of studying the distribution of 

 certain coastal plain species of grasses, and by Jason R. Swallen, 

 who spent about three months in the region from Tennessee to Texas 

 and northeastern Mexico studying the ranges of grasses. 



