144 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
VISIT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY,
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM (681st MEETING).
SATURDAY, 14TH FEBRUARY, 1931.
By kind invitation of Major E. E. Austen, D.S.O., Keeper of the
Department of Entomology, a visit of inspection of the new temporary
building of the Department was made on the above afternoon; this being
the first occasion on which the public had been admitted to the new pre-
mises, which are still in process of arrangement. Miss D. Aubertin, M.Sc.,
of the Museum staff, kindly acted as conductor to the party, which num-
bered thirty-three persons.
Assembled in the Central Hall at 2.30 o'clock, the visitors were taken
to the new building, our conductor pointing out that it was being occupied
by the Department of Entomology as a temporary measure, it being the
intention of the authorities ultimately to transfer the entomological col-
lections now therein to the galleries at present used as the Whale Room,
etc., the whales to be accommodated in the new Whale Room which
is now being erected in the grounds.
The temporary building, which is intended mainly for research work
in economic entomology, is fitted up with devices for automatically con-
trolling the temperature and degree of humidity in the several laboratories.
There are refrigerators for the experimental freezing of larvae and ova,
to determine the amount of cold requisite to kill injurious insects, electric
incubators, at various temperatures to suit different experiments, a pres-
sure-chamber, photographic apparatus and dark rooms and a plentiful
supply of entomological books for reference by students. Altogether the
new extension seems admirably equipped for experimental study in con-
nection with the life histories of noxious insects and their extirpation.
Passing into the old building, the visitors were taken through the pri-
vate collections of the Department, various cabinets of the different Orders
of insects being exhibited for their inspection. Of the Coleoptera, some
large and beautifully coloured weevils, specimens of the genus Plusiotis,
with burnished golden and silver integuments, and the huge longicorn,
Acrocinus longimanus, from South and Central America, with greatly en-
larged first pair of legs, 41/2 inches long, its other legs being only half that
length, attracted special interest. Some large Lepidoptera from Brazil,
with their metallic colouration, were much admired.
In her own special sanctum, devoted to the Diptera, Miss Aubertin
showed us and described various flies of economic importance, such as the
tsetse fly, which is the carrier of sleeping sickness and rinderpest, the warble
fly, which attacks horses, the robber-flies, which seize their prey on the wing,
and others.
Finally, our guide conducted us into the Public Galleries, to show us the
bust of J. H. Fabre, the veteran Provencal naturalist, some new exhibits
to illustrate the anatomy of insects and dimorphism in various Orders, and
other things of special interest.
At the conclusion of the tour, the Honorary Secretary, in the name of the
party, thanked Miss Aubertin for her services and also expressed its thanks
to Major Austen for the opportunity so kindly afforded the Club to inspect
the workings of his Department.