MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



5 



I' In 1 897 the Springfield Zoological Club began a card catalogue of 

 the animals of the lower Connecticut valley. This istnnal list is growing 

 rapidly, and, during the past year, the museum has furnished a case of 

 drawers which already contains the card-list of animals, and to which will 

 be added a similar list of plants of the same region, now being prepared 

 under the auspices of the Springfield Botanical Society, by its recording 

 secretary, Miss Elizabeth Booth. 



' ' The importance of such records in the study of geographical distribu- 

 tion of plants and animals is self-evident, but a local biological survey is of 

 slow growth, dependent on the interest taken from time to time by compe- 

 tent systematists in different groups of organisms. At present the most 

 complete portion of this card-list is that devoted to birds, in which 304 

 species are recorded. Its completeness is largely due to work in the past 

 by Prof. J. A. Allen and Mr. C. W. Bennett, and to present careful study 

 of our birds by Mr. Robert O. Morris. Collections of beetles of Springfield 

 were begun as early as 1868 by the late Mr. Solomon Stebbins, and by Mr. 

 C. A. Emery. Dr. Dimmock collected many species during the next decade, 

 and Mr. Frederick Knab, of Chicopee, has since built up a large collec- 

 tion of these insects. Resulting from these collections the card-list of 

 beetles numbers 1,296 species. The total number of animals now recorded 

 is 8,125. 



" The mode of keeping these records is shown below, by an exact repro- 

 duction of the first record card for the elm-leaf beetle, now so destructive 

 about Springfield." 





Galerucella luteal a, Mi'dl. 





s 



Family, Clirysomelidae. 



No. 6912. 



cal CI 



Taken by Frederick Knab. 





ologi. 



Locality, West Sprinf/Jield, Mass. Date, 



5 June, 1892. 



!ld Zo 



Identified by Frederick Knab. 





ingfie 



First known capture of the elm-leaf beetle 



in the vicinity of 



00 



Springfield. 





A list of meetings and topics of the club is given in the appendix of 

 this report. 



Other Meetings, 



The Geological Club has held tw^o meetings in the Science Muse^^m as 

 follows : 



