20 KEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS (INCLUDING CENOZOIC INVERTEBRATE FOSSILS). 



From the report of Dr. W. H. Dall, curator of this department, it 

 will be seen that seventy-five accessions were received during the year, 

 including some 32,000 specimens. Some are of great extent and value, 

 those perhaps most worthy of mention being the series of deep-sea 

 mollusks dredged by the U. S. S. Blake and presented by Prof. 

 Alexander Agassiz, the types of a report on the mollusks of the Blake 

 expedition by Mr. Dall, and a valuable series of mollusks dredged in 

 the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas, presented by Dr. W. H. Rush, 

 U. S. Navy. The curator has made a special study of the mollusks of 

 the Blake collection. The investigation of the mollusks from later Ter- 

 tiary beds of South Florida is still in progress. Mr. Dall has also made 

 studies upon a collection of mollusks obtained by the Jeannette Expe- 

 dition at Benuett Island, has carried on his work upon the general 

 Floridian and Gulf fauna, and on the geology of South Florida, besides 

 working up several collections made by L. M. Turner in Labrador, by 

 Nicholas Grebnitzki in Bering Sea, and by himself in several parts of 

 northern Alaska. 



Dr. R. E. C. Stearns, the adjunct curator, has been engaged, in addi- 

 tion to his regular work, in the s.udy of the fossil Tryonias, of Teredo, 

 and of the Plwridce. 



Very notable advances have been made in the arrangement and 

 cataloguing of the mollusca, as is shown by the fact that 10,530 cata- 

 logue entries have been made, which represent the final classification 

 of about 32,000 specimens. 



DEPARTMENT OF INSECTS. 



Progress has been made in the arrangement of the collections of in- 

 sects. The curator, Prof. C. V. Riley, states in his report that the ar- 

 rangement of the Lepidoptera from the Rhopalocera to the end of the 

 Arctiidce has been completed ; the material embracing the order of Dip- 

 tera has been separated into families. The collection of Arachnidce has 

 been re-arranged. The work of labeling and separating the duplicate 

 material in the suborder Heteroptera has been completed. 



Many importaut accessions have been received from the correspond- 

 ents and agents of the entomological division of the Department of 

 Agriculture, and conspicuous among them is the valuable collection 

 made by Mr. Albert Koebele, in California, including several thousand 

 specimens. Mr. E. A. Schwarz presented about 300 specimens of 

 Coleoptera. In all, 102 accessions have been received during the year, 

 representing, exclusive of the collection of the assistant curator, Mr. 

 J. B. Smith (which has become the property of the Museum), at least 

 10,000 specimens. The exhibition series now includes 7,S78 specimens 

 (2,037 species), besides a large number of drawings. There have been 

 made 101 entries in the catalogue of the department during the year. 



