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representative of that State, and that the Committee should offer to pay of his passage to and from England.

the

expense

(3) That at a later date the Government Hospitality Fund should be approached in the matter of providing entertainment for the delegates.

(4) That a Sub-Committee should be appointed to make detailed arrangements

for the Conference, including the drafting of Agenda.

(5) That the Sub-Committee should be composed as follows:--

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Dr. Bagshawe.

Dr. Harmer.

Professor Lefroy. Professor Newstead.

Professor Poulton.

Sir H. Read.

Mr. Rothschild.

Dr. Shipley.

Annexure.

HALF-YEARLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY.

Ar the time of our last half-yearly meeting replies had not been received from several Dominions and Colonies with reference to the renewal of their annual contributions to the Bureau for a further period of years. Since then all these Governments have sent affirmative answers, and the three Australian States that at first proposed to discontinue their payments have now changed their minds and have agreed to continue them for another three years. As Newfoundland and St. Vincent have renewed their contributions, our total income from this source is now £4,570. It is probable that this will be increased next year by £500, for the Colonial Office have suggested to the Governments of the British East Africa, Uganda, and Nyasaland Protectorates that they should contribute £250, £150, and £100 a year, respectively, for three years, from April, 1920.

Appendix I. shows the receipts and expenditure for the past six months. The expenditure on our two publications appears to be unusually heavy owing to belated accounts from the Stationery Office, covering fifteen months, having been paid during this period. The interest received is nearly double that of the previous half-year, owing to the addition of £3,000 to the Carnegie Fund. It may be as well to consider whether it would be advisable to invest a portion of this sum in Five per cent. War Loan, instead of leaving it in the bank on deposit at call as at present. On the flotation of the Four per cent. Funding Loan the Crown Agents inquired whether they should convert our £2,500 National War Bonds into this loan; a circular letter to the Finance Sub-Committee revealed a majority in favour of the transfer, which was therefore effected, with the unfortunate result that our capital has depreciated by about £100 at the present moment.

In Appendix II. is set forth a statement of our cash resources and estimated It will be observed liabilities for the remainder of the current financial year. that, in spite of increased costs, we are still likely to have a surplus of £2,348 in the Bureau Fund at the end of the year, a reduction of £215 as compared with the end of last year.

The Entomological Conference. In accordance with the proposal adopted at the special Committee meeting held on 16th July, Lord Harcourt kindly wrote to Mr. Andrew Carnegie explaining the position in regard to the Conference, and asking his consent to the suggestion that we should use a portion of his donations (not exceeding £1,700) in giving financial assistance, where necessary, to official Owing to the entomologists, in order to enable them to attend the Conference. death of Mr. Carnegie no reply has been received to this communication, and, as it is extremely improbable that he would have withheld his consent, an offer of such assistance improbable that he would have withheld his consent, an offer of raised difficulties about sending their entomologists to London. Up to the time of writing the only sum definitely allocated for this purpose has been £50 for the Entomologist to the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies.

* No. 92.

It

is very improbable that the amount to be expended in this way will exceed £1,000. In connexion with the Conference a difficulty arose from the fact that in one or two instances Colonial Governments suggested sending medical men as their representatives. It was quite clear that in the present circumstances (and especially from the financial point of view) it would be impossible to make adequate arrange ments to deal with so wide and important a subject as medical entomology at this Conference, and it was therefore decided, with the concurrence of Lord Harcourt, to advise the Governments concerned that on this occasion the scope of the meeting would be restricted to agricultural entomology. At the same time the date was definitely fixed for Wednesday, the 19th May, 1920.

Collections of Insects. The amount of material received for identification is still on the upward grade, and, for the sake of comparison, in the following letails the figures for the corresponding six months of last year are given in brackets. In all, 82 (63) consignments of insects were received from 47 (27) different correspondents, who were distributed as follows:-Europe 9 (6), Asia The total 7 (5), African 24 (11), Tropical America 5 (5), and Australasia 2 (0). number of insects received was about 9,700 (6,700), of which 3,000 (1,100) were blood-suckers. The number of lists of names sent out to correspondents was 30 (26), and these comprised 636 (505) specific identifications.

Owing to this increase in the material, combined with the fact that our purely Entomological staff is now two less than it was in 1914, the identification work has fallen somewhat seriously in arrear, and if the influx of insects is maintained some readjustment of the staff will have to be made in order to cope with it.

Professor M. Bezzi, of Turin, has recently completed the identification of all our African fruit-flies (Trypetida), among which he has described no less than sixty species new to science; we have now by far the finest collection extant of these insects, and it will shortly be handed over to the British Museum, now that Major E. E. Austen has happily returned. A large collection of named African Tachinido (mostly beneficial flies parasitic on other insects), kindly identified for use by Dr. Villeneuve, of Paris, and comprising types of twenty new species, has recently been presented to the Museum.

"Bulletin of Entomological Research."-In Appendix III. will be found a statement of the expenditure and receipts in respect of Volume IX. of this periodical. In spite of the very greatly increased cost of paper and printing, the deficit is not more than £60 or £70 greater than it used to be in pre War days. This is prin- cipally due to the fact that, with a few trifling exceptions, the original illustra- tions were all supplied by the authors themselves, whereas in most volumes we have paid something like £50 or £60 for drawings. Moreover, there has been a con- tinued small improvement in the sales, and the net amount received from the publishers was £105, as compared with £93 for Volume VIII, and £88 for Volume VII. The number of subscribers has increased from 169 to 177, and the additional separate parts sold from 285 to 369. Judging from the experience of other journals, it does not seem likely that there will be any falling off in subscribers as a result of the increased price that we shall charge for Volume X.

In the case of Volume IX., we have suffered inordinate delays at the hands of both printers and blockmakers, but a marked improvement appears to have set in quite recently, and the first part of Volume X. should be out by the middle of November. Another complete part is taken up by Mr. Fiske's Glossina report, and this has been in type for some time, but it has been held back on account of his The manuscript of a urgent request to see the proofs before it was published. third part has already gone to the printers. and there is enough material in hand for another; so that it is hoped that we may be able to issue all four parts in fairly rapid succession before the end of the financial year.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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