70 Report of the President 



rator set about proving his point. That proof is being ex- 

 hibited under the title "Some of the Insects of a Suburban 

 Yard." 



Progress with the habitat groups of insects has been slow 

 because of congestion in the Department of Preparation and 

 the lack of suitable cases. The unique exhibition series 

 showing spider-webs in three dimensions has been lost be- 

 cause of the lack of suitable cases to contain it. 



One pleasant feature of the year's work has been the asso- 

 ciation in the field with groups from such organizations as 

 the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the Woodcraft 

 Personal Con- League. The Curator was able to meet such 

 tact with groups in the Palisades Interstate Park and 



the Public elsewhere and personally to point out some of 

 the interesting and instructive features of living 

 insects and spiders. 



Contact by correspondence and by interviews in the office 

 continues to occupy a great deal of the staff's time. An 

 account has been kept of the questions answered in this way 

 and we plan to prepare a leaflet dealing with these specific 

 questions. It is to be regretted that a large proportion of 

 such inquiries concern the possibility of making money by 

 collecting insects. Such possibility is very small and the 

 one who looks at insects through a dollar is sure to miss much. 



The only technical papers actually published from this de- 

 partment in 1921 are "Geographic Average, a Suggested 

 . Method for the Study of Distribution," by 



Frank E. Lutz (American Museum Novitates, 

 No. 5), and three reports (American Museum Novitates, Nos. 

 21, 23, and 24) by T. D. A. Cockerell on "cuckoo" bees 

 collected by the department's survey west of the 100th me- 

 ridian. Of the 85 species listed in Professor Cockerell's re- 

 ports, 34 are new to science. A treatise of more than a 

 thousand printed pages on Congo ants, by William M. 

 Wheeler, J. Bequaert, I. W. Bailey, F. Santschi and W. M. 

 Mann, is in press, and several other large papers, including 

 one on West Indian fire-flies, by C. W. Leng amfr A. J. 

 Mutchler, are practically ready for press. A number of popu- 

 lar articles have been published, and the "Field Book of In- 

 sects" by Frank E. Lutz has been revised and enlarged. 



