3. Work on the Collections of Orthoptera. 



The state of Mr. Shelford's health entirely prevented him 

 from coming to the Department last year, and from March 1 ,",, 

 1910, to April 11, 1911, he was absent from Oxford. He 

 was able to write and publish one paper on Blaiiidac, to 

 help in cataloguing the library accessions, and in entering 

 up the catalogue of insect accessions — a laborious piece of 

 work which was greatly needed. 



4. Work on the Collection of Picrinac. 



Dr. F. A. Dixey has been engaged in incorporating Picrinac 

 from the collections presented by Dr. G. B. Longstaff, Mr. 

 Neave, and Mr. Herbert Druce. This has involved a good 

 deal of rearrangement of the group, which now occupies 380 

 cabinet drawers. lie has also, in continuation of his work 

 on the scent-producing apparatus in butterflies, devoted 

 special attention to those genera of Picrinac which are not 

 furnished with plume-scales, particularly to the genus Dis- 

 viorfliia, in which the patches of specialized scales concerned 

 in the function of scent-distribution arc of a peculiarly interest- 

 ing character. Man)- preparations of these have been made, 

 and the results are being got ready for publication. 



5. Rearrangement of the British Beetles. 



The rearrangement of the British Staphylinidac has been 

 most kindly continued by Commander J.J. Walker through- 

 out the past year, and now approaches completion. The 

 carded examples have almost without exception made excel- 

 lent specimens when cleaned and freshly mounted ; but a very 

 large proportion of the Staphylinidac are, according to the 

 practice of the early part of the last century, mounted on 

 pins of a size and make quite unsuitable for these delicate 

 and fragile beetles. The specimens bearing Haworth's labels, 

 and the series in Trof. YVestwood's Collection, named [circa 

 1845) by Mr. F. \V. Holme, are of especial interest, for they 

 record the names given by the older naturalists. These have 

 been retained upon the original pins, but have been carefully 



