44 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 
pine Islands, and other localities, descriptions of which have been 
published in the Proceedings of the Museum, were received from 
Stanford University. Mr. A. Alfaro, director of the National 
Museum of Costa Rica, donated some 40 specimens from Costa Rica, 
and Dr. J. C. Thompson, U.S. Navy, a fine lot of specimens from the 
Tortugas Islands. The Bureau of Fisheries transmitted a large and 
choice collection from Maine, Alaska, and elsewhere, including types 
and cotypes of new species. A collection of Formosan fishes was 
purchased. 
The number of fishes catalogued during the year was about 20,000, 
the receipts from the Bureau of Fisheries alone amounting to many 
thousands. A large proportion of the specimens was transferred to 
jars and labeled, the type specimens, marked with the customary 
red labels, being added to the type series. The specimens stored in 
tanks were overhauled, the duplicates separated out and new lists 
of the contents prepared. Good progress was made with the card 
catalogues of both the type and regular reserve series. Mr. B. A. 
Bean, the assistant curator, continued his study of the fishes of Flor- 
ida, the large collection from that region being brought together for 
this purpose. A considerable number of species was added to the 
faunal list, and some apparently undescribed species were detected. 
Mr. Bean also spent some time in working up a collection of Costa 
Rican fishes. 
Znsects.—The number of insects received during the year amounted 
to about 53,000, of which the U, S. Department of Agriculture 
transmitted 600 European parasitic Hymenoptera identified by Mr. 
QO. Schmiedeknecht ; about 1,150 named Coleoptera from Kurope and 
Java obtained from Mr. A. L. Montandon; about 4,200 Lepidoptera, 
TOO mosquitoes, and 3,000 miscellaneous insects collected by Mr. F. 
Knab; about 2,000 mosquitoes and 4,000 miscellaneous insects secured 
in Panama by Mr. A. Busck, and about 4,000 Tlymenoptera collected 
near Washington, District of Columbia, by Mr. H. H. Smith. 
Among the other accessions one of the most important consisted of 
about 4,770 identified Coleoptera and 750 Hemiptera and Hymenop- 
tera, presented by Mr. IF’. D. Godman, of London, being a part of the 
material gathered for the publication Biologia Centrali-Americana. 
Mr. William Schaus added to his previous large donations about 
8.200 Lepidoptera, chiefly from Costa Rica. <A collection of 275 
mosquitoes, including several new species from Panama, was con- 
tributed by Mr. A. H. Jennings of Ancon, Canal Zone. The Wash- 
ington Biologists’ Field Club presented about 800 specimens from 
Plummer’s Island, Maryland. 
General work on the collection of insects was mainly confined to 
the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, a large number of the former and 
