62 Report of the President 



amplified especially through the field work in Porto Rico, as 

 well as through Mr. Miner's expedition in Dominica and other 

 islands of the Lesser Antilles. A thousand specimens were 

 secured in California and Colorado by Mr. D. M. Fisk, who 

 later returned to his work in the department as Assistant. 

 Professor Treadwell secured many specimens of annulates in 

 Florida and the Bahamas, while Dr. Hussakof and Mr. R. C. 

 Murphy donated material secured by them in Florida and 

 South Georgia Island respectively. 



The work on insects and spiders has developed with unusual 



success during the past year, mainly through the expeditions 



, to Porto Rico made by Dr. Lutz, Curator 

 Insects and 



Crampton and Messrs. Watson and Barber, as 



noted earlier. Mr. Mutchler and Mr. Watson 



also devoted several weeks to investigations in northern 



Florida, which, like many other regions bordering on the Gulf 



of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, must be fully known in 



order to gain the best results from the study of Porto Rico or 



of any other element of the Antillean Chain. 



The untimely death of Mr. John A. Grossbeck, in April, 

 deprived the department of a valuable and well-trained assist- 



_, . ant, and entomology of a noted representative. 



Changes in r ' , . , r 



His work in the way of reducing the accumu- 

 lated mass of specimens was later taken up by 

 Mr. F. E. Watson, appointed Assistant in September. The 

 engagement of Mr. W. T. M. Forbes for two months' work on 

 insects and that of Mr. Nathan Banks for a month's study 

 and arrangement of our West Indian spiders have been particu- 

 larly profitable to the department. 



A notable recent accession is the collection obtained by 



purchase from Mr. R. F. Pearsall, which includes about 15,000 



specimens largely of Geometrid moths; this, 

 Accessions . • , , ^ • , ,, .• 



together with the Geometrid collection given 



several years ago by the late Mr. Grossbeck, puts us in an 

 enviable position with respect to this group. Another impor- 

 tant accession is a series of some 2,000 species of beetles 

 hitherto unrepresented in our collections, purchased from Mr. 

 C. W. Leng. Valuable gifts of insects have also been received 



