24 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 705 



Vertebrates" and especially of the mammoth. 

 Mr. Gibnore notes the conditions under which 

 the fossils occur and presents an extremely 

 clear and convincing suggestion as to how the 

 Siberian mammoths became imbedded in ice, 

 a suggestion that calls for no sudden and 

 widespread glaciation and no great beds or 

 ponds of ice. Mr. Gilmore gives a summary 

 of our knowledge of the Pleistocene mammals 

 of Alaska and the localities where they were 

 found, and gives the particulars of the find- 

 ing of two teeth of the mastodon near Dawson. 



In The Museums Journal of Great Britain 

 for May, Professor Geddes discusses " The 

 Museum aijd the City — ^A Practical Proposal," 

 to interest the public by devoting special at- 

 tention to illustrating by maps, models and 

 documents the past history of a city and sug- 

 gest plans for its future improvement. W. B. 

 Barton has " Thoughts on the Equipment of 

 an Art Gallery and Museum" and S. L. 

 Moseley has some notes on " Preserving 

 Plants in Natural Form." 



NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY 

 The recent parts of Wytsman's " Genera 

 Insectorum " include the hymenopterous 

 family Trigonaloidse (fascicle 61) by W. A. 

 Schulz, 24 pp., 3 pis. The author has been 

 fortunate in examining nearly all of the 

 available material in this small family, so that 

 all but three species are placed in the system. 

 A number of new genera are established, 

 mostly at the expense of Trigonalys. Fascicle 



62 is by Dr. Schmiedeknecht on the parasitic 

 Hymenoptera of the subfamily Pimplinse, 120 

 pp., 2 pis. The author adopts the usual tribes, 

 but the arrangement of genera is quite dif- 

 ferent from that of Ashmead. He makes no 

 new genera, but accepts most of those of 

 Ashmead; however he drops many of Forster's 

 genera. Over 1,500 species are catalogued, of 

 which 340 are in the genus Pimpla. Fascicle 



63 is on a small group of tropical butterflies, 

 the subfamily Dioninse of the family Nympha- 

 lidas. H. Stichel is the author, 38 pp., 3 pis. 

 Fascicle 64, a ponderous volume of 487 pages, 

 treats of the tiny beetles of the family Psela- 

 phidae. The author is A. Raffray, who has 



devoted his whole attention for many years 

 to these insects. Over 3,000 species are 

 arranged in the 452 genera. There are nine 

 plates, three exhibiting the structural details, 

 and the others show about 80 species, drawn 

 by the author. M. Eaffray considers that the 

 3,000 known species are not one third of the 

 existing forms. 



Thr British Museum has long been con- 

 sidered the greatest in the world. Recently 

 it has published an account of its collec- 

 tion.' There are lists of the accessions for 

 each year, the number of species and speci- 

 mens in each order, and the number of baxes 

 for each family. The number of types in 

 each accession is often mentioned, and the 

 persons who revised and arranged each group. 

 The entire number of insects (1904) was 

 1,018,000 specimens. By orders as follows: 



Named 



Specimens Speciea 



Lepidoptera 355,767 41,210 



Coleoptera 398,000 67,300 



Hymenoptera 132,000 19,600 



Hemiptera 57,650 11,700 



Diptera 46,900 7,377 



Orthoptera 18,800 3,900 



Neuroptera 9,056 1,864 



Aptera 140 21 



The largest collection ever received was the 

 famous Bowring collection of Coleoptera, 

 230,000 specimens ; the next, Stephens general 

 collection, 90,000 specimens; the third, 51,130 

 Lepidoptera of the Leech collection; the 

 fourth, 45,000 Coleoptera, with over 3,000 

 types from the Pascoe collection. 



Meigen's first work, a classification of flies, 

 has been one of the rarest of entomological 

 publications. Owing to this and to the fact 

 that Meigen himself abandoned them, the 

 genera there presented have rarely been ac- 

 cepted, but recourse was taken to later and 

 more extensive works of this author. Dr. F, 

 Hendel has now republished the paper, with 

 numerous commentaries and references under 



' " The History of the Collections contained in 

 the Natural History Departments of the British 

 Museum," 2 vols., 1905-7. Inseeta, Vol. II., pp. 

 550-653. 



