CURRENT NOTES. 243 



tion, held afc the Pall Mall Gallery, 5a, Pall Mall East, was devoted 

 to Natural History photography, and there was a large number of 

 excellent studies in botany and ornithology by well-known workers. 

 Of entomological interest, a series of prints by Hugh Main, F.E.S., 

 illustrating the metamorphoses of the glow-worm, were deserving of 

 notice, the descriptive notes stating that the ova, larvte, pupje and 

 imagines were all luminous. Another frame by the same worker 

 showed Di/ticKs marginalis in the various stages, and were examples of 

 good photography. P. J. Barraud, F.E.b., exhibited an enlarged 

 print of the queen wasp ; Ve^ipa vitUjaris, $ , showing the attitude 

 assumed during hybernation. A. E. Tonge's fifteen studies of British 

 moths at rest revealed careful work in this somewhat difficult branch 

 of photography. 



The stick insect, Bacillus rossi, was represented by Dr. G. H. 

 Rodman in twenty well-executed prints of the life-history of this 

 much -photographed insect, and by Walter Bagshaw, another well- 

 known worker. These serve as admirable examples of protective 

 mimicry. A. E. Smith showed an enlarged photograph of the 

 blow- fly, Midica voinitoria. Of particular interest was a specimen of 

 natural colour photography by the autochrome process by Edward J. 

 Bedford, the transparency showing eight specimens of the better- 

 known Lycaenids, giving very good colour values. A. W. Dennis, a 

 member of the South London Entomological Society, exhibited 

 excellent specimens of the British lichens, one, Gongylia riridis, 

 being new to science. In this connection it is worthy of notice that 

 a thoroughly representative exhibit of natural history photography 

 by the best-known authorities is to be seen in the Shackleton 

 Gallery at the Anglo-Japanese Exhibition. Entomologists will 

 also be interested in an extensive exhibit of life-histories of noxious 

 insects in the Agricultural Economic section in the gallery devoted 

 to British Science exhibits. 



It can be no longer said that the collection of Micro-Lepidoptera 

 at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, is beneath 

 contempt. The " Walsingham Collection " is housed, and already 

 the task of moving the specimens into the cabinets has been begun, 

 and a brave show the Adelas and their allies make. Never, probably, 

 has so valuable a gift of scientific natural history objects been made 

 to the nation, and it would be humorous, if it were not so serious, 

 that the Micro-collection, with all its difhculties of naming, etc., will be 

 immeasurably superior to, and freer from blunders than, the butterflies, 

 the " Neps," for example, more accurately named than the " blues." The 

 understaffing of this department is a public scandal ; work as hard as 

 the present staff" may, it is quite impossible to keep pace with every- 

 day requirements. Cannot the Trustees move the Treasury just a 

 little in this matter ? Every Britisher is proud of the Natural History 

 Museum, and the suspects would find no fault with providing necessary 

 means for its minimum upkeep. At present, the staff is hopelessly 

 overweighted. 



Attached to the Walsingham Collection, is the " Walsingham 

 Library," a most useful adjunct to the efficiency of the collection, 

 referring as it does more particularly to the necessities of the worker 

 at the Micro-Lepidoptera. Mr. J. Hartley Durrant, the capable and 

 energetic curator, would be very grateful for "Separata" containing 



