CURRENT NOTES. 99 



In so large a collection, the disturbance of the arrangement of the 

 species of well-known groups when once placed on the lines of some 

 recognised list is harmful to science, in-as-much as advanced workers 

 at these branches find difficulty in locating species sometimes placed 

 far away from the position assigned in the recognised catalogues, and 

 hence much valuable time is wasted. There are, besides, other details 

 to be considered when cataloguing is in progress, e.(i., (1) the tendency 

 for the curators doing catalogue work to look on time as ill-spent that 

 is bestowed on the advanced scientists who use the collection, (2) the 

 waste of time spent in describing already well-known species, when 

 hundreds of unknown ones are awaiting description, (8) the tremendous 

 expense of issuing complete descriptive catalogues of comparatively 

 well-known superfamilies, when the same expense would possibly 

 cover the cost of publication of the thousands of undescribed species 

 now in the boxes of the museum — as unknown to-day as if they had 

 never been captured (perhaps 20 or even 50 years ago). 



If there was a large staff, capable of deahng with all the desirable 

 issues that crop up in a large public institution of this kind, the matter 

 would be different, but the fact that there is only a small staff" 

 necessitates Laving an organisation that shall be most effective under 

 the circumstances, and there can be no second thought that what we 

 want as advanced entomologists are — (1) that the material shall be 

 readily available, (2) that the unnamed material shall, at the very 

 earliest opportunity, be placed in position in the collection and 

 represent an advance of knowledge, and no longer be looked upon with 

 awe as buried treasure, involving a large element of ignorance. 



With so many enemies attempting so sedulously to filch, for other 

 purposes, the present government contribution to systematics, it be- 

 hoves us to see that we are getting the maximum scientific value out 

 of our marvellous entomological heritage, a heritage that is the envy 

 of all other workers throughout the world. That a new arrangement 

 could possibly end in the loss of old types, because their names are 

 supposed to be synonyms, should be unthinkable in our National 

 Collection. No individual, however eminent, should be allowed to 

 deal with our public material so that this is possible. Our enemies 

 must have no ground on which they can make any stand against 

 " systematics," which they pretend to despise, but without which they 

 cannot themselves stir hand or foot, and there can be no question 

 that the appointment of Mr. J. Hartley Durrant as First Class Assistant, 

 and the removal of the " Walsingham Collection," to South Kensing- 

 ton, will make for the strengthening of our hands, as well as an increase 

 in the public use and value, of those unrivalled collections in the 

 " cellars " of the Natural History Museum. 



The 10th volume of A Natural Historji of the Jhitis/i Lepidopti'va 

 has at last been published ; although finished almost three months 

 ago, a series of delays over which we have had no control prevented its 

 being forwarded to subscribers until March was well in. If any sub- 

 scriber has been overlooked in our sending out the volume, we should 

 be glad to hear. We trust that our subscribers will find vol. x at 

 least as valuable and interesting as its predecessors. 



We are most anxious to get all possible details of gynandromorphic 

 Pnli/mnntatHs icartis in British collectio'is, together with all known 

 data. We have traced a large number of those that have been recorded, 



