344 AiWAi.s OF THE Carnegie Museum. 



collections are already in the hands of specialists for determination 

 and study. Mr. Wm. J. Fox of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 

 Philadelphia has had the fossorial hymenoptera in his possession for 

 some years past, and has published a number of papers upon the 

 same, which have appeared in the Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The types of all the species de- 

 scribed by him will be returned to the Carnegie Museum. Mr. Ezra 

 T. Cresson of the Academy of Natural Sciences has studied the Mu- 

 tillidce, and a paper upon the same will shortly appear in the Trans- 

 actions of the American Entomological Society. The types of the 

 Miitillido', of which Mr. Cresson describes numerous new species, will 

 likewise.be returned to the Museum. Mr. Wm. H. Ashmead of the 

 U. S. Natural Museum is preparing a paper upon the Chakidoidea, 

 which will be published in the next number of the Annals. Mr. Ash- 

 mead reports a great deal of very interesting material. The types of 

 the new species, of which he reports a great many, will also be 

 returned to the Museum. Mr. P. R. Uhler of the Peabody Institute in 

 Baltimore has in his hands for purposes of study the Capsidir, upon 

 which it is expected that he will shortly report. Steps are being 

 taken looking toward the distribution to other eminent specialists of 

 various groups contained in these highly important collections. Rev. 

 P. Jerome Schmitt of St. Vincent's College, Beatty, Pa., has kindly 

 undertaken to work up the Pselaplddcv. Professor Schmitt is peculiarly 

 well qualified to undertake this rather difficult task. 



Considerable time has been consumed in the rearrangement of the 

 entomological collections belonging to the Museum. Attention has 

 been for the past four weeks given principally to the large collections 

 of West African coleoptera, numbering many thousands of species and 

 a vast number of specimens. The design is so soon as possible to 

 distribute these interesting collections among specialists in this country 

 and Europe for final determination. The huge collection of lepidop- 

 tera is also being gradually overhauled and rearranged with a view to 

 making it more accessible to students for purposes of study and com- 

 parison. No estimate of the exact number of species and specimens 

 jn this collection can be accurately made until the work of rearrange- 

 ment has been completed. In exotic lepidoptera it is undoubtedly 

 the largest and richest collection in the United States. Over three- 

 fifths of all the species listed in Kirby's Synonymic Catalogue of the 

 Butterflies of the World are known to be represented in the collec- 



