2 Indian Museum Notes, [ Vol. IIL 



Donovan's Insects of India and Westwood's Arcana Entomologica. The 

 Passalini had been named by Dr. Stoliczka, and a small set of miscella- 

 neous insects collected by that intrepid explorer on the Yarkand Mission, 

 shortly previous to his death, were afterwards returned to the Museum 

 by the late Mr. E. W. Jauson, who had circulated them to various well- 

 known entomologists in Europe, and in this way procured the identifi- 

 cation of a large proportion of the species. 



Since 1884 the Museum collections have been steadily growing, 

 partly by presentations, partly by the work of native collectors who have 

 been employed, whenever funds have admitted, to collect specimens in 

 various parts of India and Burma, and to a small extent by purchases. 

 The specimens recorded in the general register, which is chiefly, though 

 by no means exclusively, taken up with insects, stood at somewhat 

 under twenty thousand in the beginning of 1884i. The number of 

 entomological accessions since recorded in the Annual Museum Reports 

 amounts to sixty-seven thousand. This, however, by no means repre- 

 sents the total increase which has taken place during the decade, for of 

 late years, under the orders of the Trustees, passed at the suggestion of 

 the late Mr. E, T. Atkinson, with a view to saving space in the register, 

 large numbers of miscellaneous entomological specimens of which only 

 the locality of collection and the name of the collector were known, 

 have been ticketed individually with these particulars and do not appear 

 on the register. It is difficult to obtain exact figures, but taking into 

 account the numerous unregistered specimens possessed by the Museum 

 in 1884, it is probably rather below than above the mark to say that the 

 collection is now four times as rich in specimens as it was ten years ago. 

 This growth, which has been very largely due to the exertions of the late 

 Mr. E. T. Atkinson, must be looked upon to a great extent as incidental 

 only, for efforts have been directed, rather to the identification and 

 study of the material already obtained, than to crowding with fresh 

 specimens the limited number of cabinets which it has been possible to 

 procure with the funds available. 



One of the first considerable pieces of work undertaken subsequent 

 to 1884 was to sort the various groups of insects into their natural order, 

 the family being taken as the unit. The next was to work systemati- 

 cally through Gemminger and Harold^s monumental Catalogus Coleop- 

 terorum and through the numerous entomological catalogues of the 

 British Museum, and to identify all the species which could be deter- 

 mined by a comparison of the entomological works available in the 

 libraries of the Indian Museum, the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the 

 Geological Survey of India. Fortunately, as the result of the enlight- 

 ened policy which had been pursued in regard to them, these libraiies 



