116 BR. J. ENT. NAT. HIST., 7: 1994 



The subject labelling of the library shelves was virtually completed by Martin 

 Albertini in time for the formal opening of the library rooms in June. Many thanks 

 are due to Martin for this work. John Muggleton has continued to compile listings 

 of the journals and has continued to develop their arrangement, work for which I 

 am most grateful. Andrew Halstead has also ably assisted me in the purchase of new 

 books during the year. However despite all of this help due increasingly to the pressure 

 on my spare time I have decided to resign as your librarian in February 1995, therefore 

 a successor must be found, preferably during the next 3 months. 



During the year the Hertfordshire Natural History Society announced that they 

 wished to discontinue their journal exchange arrangement with us. A trip was made 

 by me to Oxfordshire to recover some rare books from a member who was too ill 

 to return them to the library. This trip was combined with the purchase and collection 

 of some more new books. The last two functions are typical of the responsibilities 

 attached to this position in the society. 



For entomological books, separates and conservation reports sent to the library 

 during the year, thanks are due to E. P. Wiltshire, Colin Plant, Sir Cyril Clarke, English 

 Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Biodiversity Challenge Group. 



S. R. Miles 



CURATOR'S REPORT 



Last year future plans for the collections were projected in some detail and a start has 

 been made towards achieving these aims. Work on rearranging the Coleoptera collections 

 has continued as time allowed and 76 drawers have now been completed, the last six 

 occupied by Cerambycidae, so the main phytophagous families are still to be covered. 



The contents of the loose drawers of the Bretherton collection (Papilionidae, Pieridae 

 and Nymphalidae) have been transferred to a 30-drawer cabinet and the Torstenius 

 collection of Swedish Lepidoptera, which was till then in the care of the late Brad 

 Ashby, was returned this January. The proposed reorganization of the Palaearctic 

 butterfly collection will, however, await the availability of the two cabinets being 

 cleared of the Massee Coleoptera collection. 



There have been several donations during the year, including a substantial increase 

 to our sawfly collections, i.e. 138 species provided by Andrew Halstead, who has 

 corrected some of the older specimens; specimens of aculeate Hymenoptera were 

 donated by Andrew Halstead and Raymond Uffen and of Homoptera by Bernard 

 Verdcourt. Eighteen store boxes containing larger moths were received from Humphrey 

 Mackworth-Praed, being the duplicate specimens from his father's collection which 

 we received in 1991. 



I am grateful to Peter Baker and Bill Parker for sorting the Lepidoptera accessions 

 and for their ongoing selection of specimens to augment the society's main collections 

 of this order. The number of duplicate specimens of Lepidoptera had become excessive 

 and some weeding out of these is now taking place. It has been decided to eliminate 

 the distinction between duplicate specimens freely available to members and the better 

 specimens previously set aside for sale. In future, no attempt will be made to put 

 a price on individual specimens and there will be a single collection of duplicate 

 Lepidoptera, but any member taking specimens will be asked to make a discretionary 

 donation to the society. 



A loan has been made of 270 beetles of the family Ptiliidae to Colin Johnson, who 

 revised our material of Atomaria some years ago and is now performing this task 

 for Acrotrichis and its relatives. 



