SECRETARY'S REPORT 23 



d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Dr. Lachner studied the sharksuckers 

 (Echeneidae) in the collections of Tulane University, New Orleans, 

 April 15-22, 1957, and added important data to his review of host 

 specificity. Some 500 specimens of fresh-water barbeled minnows 

 (Hybopsis) were examined for inclusion in a partially completed 

 manuscript. X-rays were taken of 19 types and specimens of small, 

 somewhat transparent fishes (Henicichthyidae) to determine details 

 of the osteology for incorporation in a revisional study. 



In continuation of his research on sea anemones, Dr. Charles E. Cut- 

 ress, associate curator of marine invertebrates, searched the inverte- 

 brate collections of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale 

 University, the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 

 October 22-November 6, 1956, for type specimens and material from 

 the central and South Pacific Ocean. ■ Dr. Cutress was detailed during 

 February 1957 to proceed to the Museum of Wesleyan University at 

 Middletown, Conn., for the purpose of packing and shipping zoologi- 

 cal materials which were transferred to the national collections. 



In furtherance of his taxonomic studies on scarab beetles, O. L. Cart- 

 wright, associate curator of insects, examined types of Onthophagus, 

 Ataenius, and Ligyrus, as well as other genera, in the collections of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge and the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, February 24-28, 1957. Later, April 

 21-24, 1957, he critically studied the types of Scarabaeidae in the Cin- 

 cinnati Museum of Natural History and Purdue University, Lafayette, 

 Ind. 



Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, head curator of zoology, and leader of the 

 Smithsonian-Bredin Society Islands Expedition, left Washington on 

 June 14, 1957, en route to Papeete, Tahiti. The generosity of Mr. and 

 Mrs. Bruce Bredin, of Greenville, Del., enabled the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution to charter the vessel Mareva for this marine biological survey of 

 the Society Islands. The party included also Dr. Harald A. Render, 

 curator of mollusks, and T. E. Bowman and Charles E. Cutress, Jr., 

 associate curators of marine invertebrates. In the course of this cruise 

 collections were obtained at or in the vicinity of Makatea, Tickahau, 

 Bora-Bora, Raiatea, Tahaa, Huaheine, and Moorea. 



Early in January Dr. Alexander Wetmore, research associate and 

 former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, returned to Panama 

 in continuation of his field researches on the distribution and variation 

 of the birdlife of the Isthmus. Through the friendly interest of Dr. 

 Pedro Galindo of the staff of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory for 

 Tropical Medicine, and Diputado in the legislative body of the Re- 

 public, permission was given for work in the restricted area of the 

 Comarca de San Bias, territory of the coastal group of the Cuna In- 



451800—58 3 



