~41— 
District of Columbia. H. S. Peters, of the permanent staff, has 
been in charge of the work in Maryland and Virginia. In Delaware 
L. A. Stearns directed the work, It is of interest to note that 
in connection with the tick.control work a number of ticks were 
found attached to mice and sucking blood in midwinter. 
IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS 
The large collection of beetles assembled by the late Henry F. 
Wickham of Iowa City, Iowa, was recently presented to the U. S. 
National Museum by his widow, Mrs. Wickham. The offer of the col- 
lection was made through L. L. Buchanan, of the Identification and 
Classification staff, and was contingent on his going to Iowa City 
to prepare end ship the specimens. Mr. Buchanan left Washington the 
last of December and completed his work so that the collection was 
received at the Museum on January 18, It includes about 225 double 
(book-type) wooden boxes, containing an estimated total of 70,000 
specimens, most of which are woll mounted, accuretely labeled as to 
locality, and in excellent condition, All the principal groups of 
beetles are included, but the Cicindelidae, Cleridae, Tenebrionidae, 
scarabacidae, and Cerambycidae are better represented than most 
other families. In the Cicindelidae (tiger beetles), a group in 
which Professor Wickham was especially interested, the species are 
from all parts of the World, and in two or three other families there 
is a fair amount of exotic material; but for the most part the col- 
lection contains species from North America only (including Mexico, 
the Bahama Islands, Alaska, and Canada). The collection is notable 
for the relatively large proportion of specimens from the Western 
and Southwestern States, a region over which Professor Wickham col- 
lected for many years. The exact number of type specimens has not 
been ascertained, but in addition to the types of the 43 species 
that Wickham himself described, there are probably 50 or 60 addi- 
tional types.or paratypes described by other workers. Professor 
Wickhnam's collection of fossil insects and plants, consisting of 
about 3,000 specimens and including a considerable number of beetle 
types, also was presented to the Museum and was shipped to Wash- 
ington by Mr. Buchanan along with the beetle collection. 

mitted to the National Museum by F. H. Shirck of Parma, Idaho, as 
the rere weevil Tachypterellus consors Dietz. The weevils were 
| collected June 4, 1933, at Banks, Idaho, on a "shrub," leaves of 
which accompanied the beetles, The plant has been identified by 
GC. V. Morton of the National Herbarium as serviceberry (Amelanchier 
florida). So far as known, this is the first indication of the 
host plant of this insect. 
| Mr. Buchanan has recently identified several specimens sub- 

