OURRENT NOTES. 209 
operative effort, particularly to the entomologists of the United States,” 
should have beneficial results of a far reaching character. He reviews 
the work done country by country, and naturally perhaps Africa 
occupies the greatest number of pages. We should have liked to have 
seen some reference to the very valuable work done by Dr. Perkins 
with the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii, but we suppose that that 
was rather outside the scope of the review.—G. T. B.-B. 
In the same number of the Annals wherein the above is published 
there is a very valuable brochure by Mr. T. F. Martin, of the Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College, on “The Thoracic and Cervical Sclerites 
of Insects.” It contains a historical review of the work done by the 
earlier entomologists, beginning with Knoch, 1801, and ending with 
Dr. Prell in 1918. This review very briefly summarises each author’s 
views, and he shows that the investigations of Audouin, in 1824, 
remain the basis on which our modern research work is built up. We 
cannot, however, but be surprised that the most able and complete 
work on the thorax of the Sphinyidae in Rothschild and Jordan’s great 
monograph is altogether omitted. Though the bulk of the “historical 
review ”’ section is taken up with work outside the Lepidoptera, yet 
that order does come in, and as a consequence the omission is serious. 
The review is followed by a very useful discussion on the different 
sclerites of the thorax, which will certainly be most useful to other 
observers. The Bibliographical and Terminological lists will also be 
very welcome to us in the future. The work is far from a mere com- 
pilation, useful as that would have been, but the author has investigated 
for himself, his special line of research being devoted to the pleuron 
and sternum, so that the tergum and wings are less fully dealt with. 
The whole work, however, is a valuable contribution to the morphology 
of insects.—G.T.B.-B. 
We have been informed that the Trimen Collection of South African 
Butterflies has been acquired by Mr. J. J. Joicey. This historic collec- 
tion formed the basis of the late Roland Trimen’s classical monograph 
on the §. African Butterflies. It is representative of the whole of the 
Rhopalocera of South Africa and contains most of the types of the 
species described by Trimen. Lepidopterists who are desirous of seeing 
types or other specimens contained in this collection may have access 
to it upon application to the Curator, the Hill Museum, Witley, Surrey. 
The Rev. F. D. Morice, M.A., has volunteered to work on the col- 
lections of Hymenoptera in the British Museum, South Kensington, 
during the absence of members of the staff at the front, and has for the 
past few months been in constant attendance. Mr. H. St. J. K. Donis- 
thorpe, for some months past, has at his own suggestion similarly taken 
charge of the large collections of fossil insects in the museum with a 
view to their more serviceable arrangement and availability for students. 
For some time his voluntary services have been accepted on the collec- 
tions of ants and other items. By taking advantage of the generous 
offers of expert specialists such as these, the trustees of the museum 
have done their. best not only to secure the continuance of the objective 
of the collections, but even to enhance their usefulness in the future, 
in spite of the now popular view that “ Education is not a work of 
national importance.” 
We have received several very cheery letters from our colleague Dr. 
Burr in Salonika, who has met with friends of the net, so that even 
