REPORT OF ASRIRTANT SECRETARY. 41 



The Decapoda and Isopoda collected on an expedition to the < uilapago.s Islands in 

 1898-99, sent out by Stanford T'niversity, liave been received for study. The Isopoda 

 luive been written up by Miss Kii-hardson, and the Brachyura ami Macrura ha\c' been 

 determined by Miss Kathbun. 



During last summer Miss Rathbnn made a study of a certain ])ortion of the fresh- 

 water oralis belonging to the Museum of Natural History, Paris. 



]\Iiss Richardson has prepared a key to North American Isopoda, which has 

 appeared in two numbers of the American Naturalist; she has also nearly completed 

 an account of the Isopoda of the Atlantic coast of North America, with descriptions of 

 many new species. 



Mr. F. A. Luciis, in connection with work on fossil vertebrates, has 

 engaged in studies of the gallinaceous birds and of the corinfirants, and 

 also of certain Cyprinodont fishes. 



The treatise on the reptiles of Japan, prepared by Doctor Stejneger, 

 was delayed for want of satisfactor}' illustrations, but toward the close 

 of the year means were found to obtain desirable results, and it is 

 expected that the work can soon be published. Doctor Stejneger has 

 been engaged also on a monograph of the reptiles and batrachians of 

 Porto Rico, and, since his return from a visit to that island, has exteiided 

 the scojie of his work to include a general survev^ of the Antilles. 



Activity in mammalogy has been due almost exclusively to Mr. (1. S. 

 Miller, jr., who has studied and published upon numerous lots of 

 material in the Division of Mammals. He published fourteen contri- 

 l)utions during the year, including a series of directions foi' preparing 

 specimens of small mammals. His work on the free-tailed American 

 bats has been held back awaiting the accumulation of additional 

 material. An extended report on the mammals collected by Doctor 

 Abbott in the islands of the South China Sea, by Mr. Miller, was 

 completed during the year, and also a report on the mammals collected 

 by Mr. Currie in Liberia. 



Mr. Ashmead continued work on his monograph of the North 

 American Rraconidw and on his reports on Japanese hymenoptera, 

 on the hymenoptera collected by Doctor Abbott in Africa and Siam, 

 and on the parasitic hymenoptera of the Hawaiian Islands. He 

 completed reports on the aculeate hymenoptera of St. Vincent and 

 Grenada received from the British Museum in 1897, and on the Aus- 

 tralia hymenoptera collected by Albert Koebele, and others bred b}'^ 

 Mr. W. W. Froggatt in New Zealand. Mr. Coquillett prepared 

 monographs of the flies of the families Ephydrida^ and Drosophilidte 

 and began a report on the Diptera of the Harriman Expedition. A 

 monograph of the antlions of North America was begun by Mr. R. P. 

 Currie. 



Dr. J. N. Rose, besides determining the plants collected ])y him in 

 Mexico, completed, conjointly with Dr. J. M. Coulter, a revision of 

 the Umbellifera^ of the United States, containing notices of about 50 

 species new to science. The Museum collection in this order is very 

 rich and contains fullv 1»,000 sheets. 



