Jourtial of Travel and Natural History 



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British Museum Entomological Collections.— Tliose who have 

 felt aggrieved by the long-continued neglect with which this part of the collection 

 has been treated for years past, will be pleased to learn that the recent appointment 

 of two additional assistants (Mr Waterhouse and Mr Butler) to this department 

 has already begun to make some impression upon the chaotic mass of material. 

 In the Coleoptera Mr Frederick Smith has now finished the arrangement of the 

 Curculionidae, and Mr Waterhouse that of the Lamellicornes, at all events to such 

 an extent as to make them a credit instead of a discredit to the National Collection. 

 The collection in these two immense families is now not only the largest in the 

 world, but also the best arranged. We have especial pleasure in recording the 

 excellence of Mr Waterhouse's work. Mr Frederick Smith needs no praise from 

 us : he only brings to the classification of the Coleoptera that scientific talent 

 which so long made his former department, the collection of Hymenoptera, the 

 one bright particular star of excellence in the midst of general disorder. But 

 Mr Waterhouse has only recently joined the staff; and as much of the 

 future usefulness of a very important part of the collection must necessarily 

 depend upon his fitness, his success was felt to be a matter of some import- 

 ance by those who wished well to the institution. The able manner in which 

 he has put the Lamellicornes in order, must, therefore be a source of grati- 

 fication, not only to the Museum authorities, but to the general public. It is 

 an earnest of good work to come ; and the next group which he takes in hand 

 (which is to be the ITeteromera) will test his abilities still more severely. 

 As he is at the beginning of his work when improvements can be most easily 

 made, and when it is as easy to follow a good plan as an inferior one, we would 

 suggest a reconsideration of the manner of labelling, and, the adoption of a fuller 

 style, such as that first, we think, introduced by M. Reiche, which contains 

 not only the name of the genus or species, but a reference to its author and the 

 place and date of its first description. It will be a little more troublesome at 

 first, but will save time to every one in the end. The National Collection 

 should adopt the best system known, and full and judicious labelling is a 

 very important point to be attended to from an educational point of view. 

 Mr Frederick Smith is now engaged on the difficult work of reducing the 

 Phytophaga into order, and incorporating with the Museum stores the contents 

 of the late Rev. Hamlet Clarke's collection, which, we learn with much plea- 

 sure, has been secured for the Museum. It served as the basis of the por- 

 tion of the British Museum catalogue of Ilalticidae, written by him, and 

 contains types from most of the great collections of Phytophaga, which had come 

 into his hands by purchase. Mr Butler, the other new aid to the Insect-room, 

 likewise promises well. He has been told off to the Lepidoptcra, and has already 

 brought the difficult though attractive group, Erycinidae, into order. He has 

 also published several good papers in the Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History and the Zoological Society's Proceedings, &'c., on different groups of the 



