for the years 1917-20. iii 



Coleoptera. He devoted his attention at first mainly to the Pedipalpi 

 and the Passalidae, on both of which he published papers noteworthy 

 for their grasp of the geographical and evolutionary aspects of taxonomy. 

 Before leaving Calcutta he had commenced work on a comprehensive 

 revision of the Indian spiders. I wish to express my personal thanks 

 to Dr. Gravely for the great help he gave me in all branches of the work 

 of the department. 



Dr. Baini Prashad, who has for some years past had close but in- 

 formal relations with the Zoological Survey of India, has been appointed 

 to succeed Dr. Gravely as Assistant Superintendent and assumed his 

 new duties on April 1st, 1920. I have placed him in cLarge of both 

 the entomological and the malacological collections and also of all the 

 stores and scientific apparatus of the department. So comprehensive 

 a charge is open to criticism, but with four permanent scientific officers 

 to deal with the whole animal kingdom, no other arrangement is at 

 present possible. 



As Dr. Baini Prashad could not be relieved immediately of the 

 apj^ointment of Officiating Director of Fisheries to the Governments of 

 Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which he held at the time of Lr. Gravely's 

 leaving Calcutta, Mr. E. Brunetti was appointed at the beginning of 

 February, 1920, to act for two months as Assistant Superintendent. 

 I take this opportunity to express the great obligations under which 

 the Zoological Survey of India lies to Mr. Brunetti, who for many 

 years past has given us the benefit of his wide knowledge of the Oriental 

 Diptera and has arranged and amplified our collections of this impor- 

 tant group, as well as contributing valuable papers upon it to our publi- 

 cations. 



Mr. S. W. Kemp, Superintendent, went to Europe on combined 

 leave for 18 months in May, 1919. While on leave he has been granted 

 the degree of Sc. D. by Trinity College, Dublin, and has been placed 

 on special duty by the India Office to visit some of the chief centres 

 of zoological research in Europe, with a view to the establishment of 

 a biological laboratory in the Andaman Islands in connection with 

 the Zoological Survey of India. 



Major R. B. Seymour Sewell, I. M.S., Surgeon Naturalist, Indian 

 Marine Survey, was appointed to act as Superintendent during 

 Dr. Kemp's absence. 



Mr. J. Gaunter, who had been Gallery Assistant in the department 

 for twelve years, resigned his appointment owing to lack of prospects 

 in May, 1918, and Mr. C. M. Jacob, who was appointed to succeed him, 

 also resigned after fourteen months. The difficulty of retaining the 

 services of intelligent young men in the junior posts of the survey is 

 becoming acute and I sincerely hope that their pay and prospects may 

 be increased before long. 



Mr. R, Hodgart, Zoological Collector, joined the Indian Army irl 

 April, 1917 for the period of the war and became a Bombardier in 

 the Anglo-Indian battery in Mesopotamiia in May, 1918. He returned to 

 his civil duties in December, 1919. While on active service he added 

 materially to our collections of the aquatic fauna of Mesopotamia. 



