British Museum (Natural History): Acquisitions

Abstract

MRS. MARY V. WALKER has presented to the Department of Zoology a set of photographs which were taken by her husband, the late Dr. William D. Walker, depicting the early life history of kangaroos. The photographs show the kangaroo in all its stages from the newly born young one to the adult and mature individual. The first of the series shows the newly born kangaroo having just made its way into the pouch and it is seen adhering to one of the nipples. At this stage the animal is very embryonic and bears but little resemblance to the massive creature into which it will grow, being scarcely more than an inch in length and looking more like a fragment of raw flesh than the young of any animal. A skin and seven skulls of a rare species of otter (Paraonyx microdon) have been presented by Mr. M. D. W. Jefferys. Mr. J. F. Perkins, assistant keeper in the Department of Entomology, spent six months from April until September 1938 in Sweden partly in the study of the important Thomson Collection of Ichneumonidae (Hymenopterous insects the larvae of which are parasitic on the larvae of other insects), and partly in collecting insects, chiefly Ichneumonidae, from the localities in Sweden where most of Thomson's specimens were obtained. More than 40,000 specimens of Hymenoptera were collected, of which 12,000 were Ichneumonidae. A large quantity of the material obtained was identified and compared with the Thomson Collection before leaving Sweden, and the specimens so dealt with were found to represent 540 different species of which 260 were not previously to be found in the British Museum (Natural History). The collections obtained by Mr. Perkins constitute an important addition to the Entomological Department, and for the large number of specimens acquired and for the work done upon them in Sweden the Museum is indebted not only to Mr. Perkins but also to his wife, who accompanied and assisted him. Recent acquisitions in the Geological Department include nearly 300 invertebrate fossils from the Tertiary of the West Indies, collected and presented by Dr. C. T. Trechmann.