630 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



lowing specialists: the Anthomyidae to Mr. J. R. Malloch, the Dolichopo- 

 didae to Mr. M. C. Van Duzee, the Chrysididae to Mr. L. H. Taylor, the 

 Elateridae, Buprestidae, Geridae and Cerambycidae to Dr. E. C. Van 

 Dyke, the Aleocharinae to Dr. A. Fenyes, the Bembecidae to Mr. C. L. 

 Fox, the Orthoptera to Mr. Morgan Hebard, and the Geometridae to Mr. 

 W. S. Wright. The curator has now completed work on nearly half of 

 the Hemiptera and finds about one-fourth of the species to be new. 

 The Sonoran insect fauna of Mexico has never been worked up with 

 any approach to completeness and in only a few groups has collecting 

 been done, except in a most desultory way. No other region accessible 

 to the Academy could yield such numbers of new forms. It is the 

 metropolis of several groups of insects dominant in Southern Cali- 

 fornia and it would seem that its careful exploration is one of the most 

 important fields of scientific research still open to the Academy. It is a 

 field which will soon be covered by eastern institutions if this Academy 

 does not undertake it. 



In addition to the insects taken by the Gulf expedition, Mr. J. C. 

 Chamberlin, who was one of the party, brought home for the Academy 

 collection over 5,000 spiders and about 1,200 scorpions, pseudoscorpions 

 and myriopods. Dr. Ralph V. Chamberlin of Harvard University has 

 worked up the myriopods, describing 11 of the 15 species as new, and 

 is now working on the spiders, while Mr. J. C. Chamberlin is at work 

 on the scorpions and pseudoscorpions. 



As no new cases were added during the year little could be done in 

 the arrangement of our collection, although 42 boxes were available for 

 the reception of our North American butterflies. We were fortunate in 

 securing the services, for three weeks, of Mr. W. S. Wright of San 

 Diego, an authority in that group of insects. With his help our material 

 was sorted over and arranged systematically so far as the boxes would 

 contain them. Three families of butterflies still await the purchase of 

 new boxes. The curator has had but little time during the year for sys- 

 tematic work on material other than that taken by the Gulf expedition, 

 but a few collections of Hemiptera have been determined for other 

 workers. 



Accessions to this department during 1921 number 25,915 specimens, 

 inclusive of the spiders, myriopods, etc., taken by Mr. Chamberlin. Of 

 this number 19,273 represent the results of the Gulf expedition. By pur- 

 chase the department has secured 2,400 insects, mostly butterflies and 

 moths, taken by Mr. J. August Kusche in North Queensland and the 

 Solomon Islands, and 778 specimens taken by Mr. Kusche at Needles, 

 Calif. Several valuable donations were received : From Mr. Virgil Owen, 

 332 specimens, mostly from Arizona; from Prof. E. O. Essig, types and 

 cotypes of several species of Aleurodidae; from Mr. C. L. Fox, 1,088 

 insects, largely from Gold Lake, Calif. ; from Dr. Isabel McCracken, 62 

 insect-galls mounted ready for exhibition ; from Dr. E. C. Van Dyke, 

 1,348 insects from Yosemite Valley; from Mr. J. O. Martin, 333 insects 

 from California ; from Mrs. H. E. Ricksecker, 294 insects from Cisco, 



