Museum Of Society Research Articles

Check List of the Syrphid Flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) of Florida

The family Syrphidae comprises one of the few large families of flies which, viewed from an economic standpoint, are of great benefit to man. The larvae of a considerable number of species are aphidophagous, destroying countless numbers of plant lice and other injurious insects which suck the juices of plants. In many areas syrphid larvae are a principal natural control of aphids on truck crops and citrus. The adults commonly visit flowers for nectar and serve an important role in effecting crosspollenation of plants. Only a few species accidentally introduced into the United States from Europe are known to be harmful, feeding on bulbs of narcissus, amaryllis and onion, and none of these is known to occur in Florida. There are a few authenticated records of accidental parasitism in man, but these are of little significance. Certain species of syrphids have been used by scientists in the laboratory in the study of the physiology of insects, in genetics, and in cytology. Many are of value as scavengers, consuming decaying animal and vegetable matter which otherwise would be a nuisance to man. Adult flies present a remarkable diversity of size, form, and coloration, some resembling bees, wasps, and bumblebees so closely that they are frequently mistaken for the latter. Many species are brightly striped, banded, or otherwise colored with yellow, orange, green and blue, and range from relatively smooth, shiny species to several which are densely hairy. In some cases even the eyes are densely pubescent. The only check list of the Syrphidae of Florida was published in 1913 by C. W. Johnson and included 21 genera and 56 species, several of which were incorrectly determined. There has been relatively little work done in Florida on this interesting family of flies since that of Johnson. I began a study of the Syrphidae in 1945, and have collected a sufficient number of species to warrant publishing this list which includes 103 species, in 32 genera. Records are included from the U. S. National Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Ohio State University Museum, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Museum, Illinois

Anniversary Meeting

At the Anniversary meeting a list of newly elected Fellows was presented, as was a list of deceased Fellows and a report on how this affected the Society's roll overall. Other reports presented included:A report on the Society’s publicationsA report on the Society’s museum and library collections A report on the excavations that took place during the preceding sessionA note on the Rhind LecturesThe Treasurer's accounts for 1946-1947 and 1947-1948
 A list of meetings of the Society in 1948 is appended, as are lists of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1947 – 1948.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1946-1947

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1946 – 1947.

A. J. Corda (1809–49)

BORN at Liberea north-east Bohemia, August Josef Corda began a remarkable scientific career as a pharmacis's assistant. He attracted the attention of Prof Kumbholz, who gave him a microscope and arrai fed for his further education. As early as 1826 Corda succeeded in germinating certain moss and fungal spores and made elaborate drawings of these cultivated cryptogams. He came into prominence for his medical work during the 1832 cholera epidemic, and this brought him to the notice of some German naturalists who gave him an opportunity to study cycads at Berlin. At the Breslau congress of doctors and naturalists in 1833, he gave an account of his work on Cycas, pointing to its links with higher cryptogams. Back in Bohemia, he was engaged to study the specialized algal and other flora of Karlsbad hot springs. Always fighting poverty, Corda's work was handicapped by his indifferent health ; his main income was the stipend as curator of the Bohemian National Museum and the money he received from Count Kaspar Sternberg (president of the Museum Society) for his share in such tasks as examining fossils from the West Bohemian coal measures, described in Sternberg's “Flora der Vorwelt’ (1837). Corda's most important work was ”Icones Fung- orum", printed in parts between 1837 and 1854, and thus completed by other botanists. Here, too, the most valuable feature was Corda's splendid illustra tions. His ability to draw rapidly and accurately led to his being sent by some Bohemian patrons of science to Texas and elsewhere to collect specimens for the Museum. His ship, the Victoria, sank on the return voyage during a storm in the West Indies in September 1849, and Corda perished at the early age of forty.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1945-1946

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1944 – 1945.

A geological museum of the early seventeenth century

Summary The paper describes the five volumes labelled “Fossils” which are among the Italian drawings purchased by George III in 1762, and which are now in the Library at Windsor Castle. The drawings have been identified as representing some of the specimens in the Museum of the Academy of the Lynxes in Rome in 1626. It is shown that these unique documents throw much light on contemporary thought, and indicate the emergence of a genuine science of Geology from the mists of magic, imagination and fable. Published accounts of similar collections, notably those of the Vatican as catalogued by Mercati, Aldrovandus, and Nehemiah Grew's catalogue of the Royal Society's museum, are quoted to show the opinions held at the time as to their origins and uses.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1944-1945

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1944 – 1945. Appended are details of Society meetings held in 1945.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1943-1944

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1943 – 1944.

Society's Museum

Society's Museum

Society's Museum

Society's Museum

Donations to and purchases for the Museum, 1942-1943

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum from 1942 – 1943.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1941-1942

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1941 – 1942. Appended are details of Society meetings held in 1942.

An Appeal for an Indian Ceramic Society Library & Museum

An Appeal for an Indian Ceramic Society Library & Museum

Donations to and purchases for the Museum and Library, 1940-1941

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum and library from 1940 – 1941. Appended are details of Society meetings held in 1941.

Donations to and purchases for the Museum, 1939-40

A list of acquisitions for the Society's museum from 1939 – 1940.

Prof. Hugo Merton

THE Nazi regime has claimed as victim another scientific worker in the person of Prof. Hugo Merton, zoologist and traveller. In 1935 he was compelled to withdraw from his posts of deputy director of the Senckenberg Naturalist Society's Museum, assistant in the Zoological Institute of the University of Heidelberg and “professor without chair of zoology, and in 1937, at the invitation of Prof. F. A. E. Crew, he went to the University of Edinburgh to work at the Institute of Animal Genetics. In the autumn of 1938 he set out for Heidelberg, but on reaching Germany was arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau, and when he was released and returned to Edinburgh in the following year his health was broken. He died on March 23, 1940, sixty years of age.

A Skull of Teleoceras fossiger Cope, from the Clarendon Beds of Donley County, Texas

During the spring and summer of 1935 the West Texas State Teachers College, in cooperation with the Federal Relief Administration maintained a field party at Clarendon, Texas. The work was devoted entirely to the collection of vertebrate paleontological material of Lower Pliocene age. Most of the collecting was done in a quarry located on what is known as Spade Flats, on the Lewis Ranch, about twenty-four miles northeast of Clarendon. The project was under the supervision of Mr. Will Chamberlain, directed by the author. Much fine material was collected, all of wlhich was placed in the Panhandle Plains Historical Society Museum at Canyon, Texas. Among other specimens collected was the almost perfect skull of Teleoceras fossiger Cope. This form is fairly well known from numerous skulls, and the description of a complete skeleton by Osborn (1898). However, there is considerable variation and it is considered worthwhile to add any data possible to our knowledge of its generic and specific characters.

Proceedings of the Spelæological Society for 1925

WHEN the editor of NATURE asked me to review the above work, I was particularly pleased to do so. It has always been a source of satisfaction to me personally that I was partly instrumental in turning the attention of the Spelaeological Society of the University of Bristol, shortly after the War, towards prehistoric investigations. Previously, though the Society and its predecessor bore an honourable record for researches on underground water-ways, etc., little serious prehistoric work had been attempted. The work of the ‘Speteos’ has barely received the recognition it deserves; most people would be astonished to see how much material has been already collected and classified in the last few years; a visit to the Society's museum—housed in the new buildings of the University of Bristol—has become a necessity for all prehistorians. The difficulty has been that a few years ago—rightly or wrongly—the Society decided to publish its own Proceedings instead of combining with one of the older societies for this purpose. Folk as a rule are rather suspicious of new provincial publications of this kind, and it is to combat these suspicions in this particular case that this review is written. Proceedings of the Spelaeological Society for 1925. No. 3, Vol. 2. (University of Bristol.) 3s.

Obituaries

By the death of Thomas Francis Moore the National Museum, Melbourne, has lost one of the most valued members of its staff. Mr. Moore had filled the position of osteologist at that institution for nearly twenty-two of Hist at very high orderly untyyears His work was of ka verth tghe past, it may be mentioned that Mr. Moore's father, Mr. T. J. Moore, was for forty years curator of the Liverpool Museum, and from 1865 to 1884 organised and took part in the Liverpool Free Public lectures. Dr. Frederick Moore, of the East India Company's Museum, well known by his work on oriental Lepidoptera, was an uncle of Mr.T. F. Moore.

Dissent and Protest

A transcription of Dr David Hay Fleming's Dissent and Protest following the vote on whether the Society's museum should be opened to the public on Sundays. Dr Fleming lists the religious, practical and financial objections to the decision.