Fungi. Natural World Series. By Roy  Watling. Published by Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington (DC), in association with The Natural History Museum, London. $16.95 (paper). 96 p; ill.; index. ISBN: 1–58834–082–1. 2003.

Neocylloepus Brown, 1970 and Pilielmis Hinton, 1971 are Neotropical genera of riffle beetles, mainly distributed in Central America and the north of South America. These genera are here reported for the first time from Venezuela, and a new species, Pilielmis shepardi sp. nov. is described and illustrated. The type material is housed in Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (MZSP), Natural History Museum, London, UK (BMNH), Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola, Maracay, Venezuela (MIZA), Michael A. Ivie Collection, Bozeman, Montana, USA (MAIC), and National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA (USNM).

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: Director of Natural History Museum Quits

Science ◽

10.1126/science.292.5523.1817b ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 292 (5523) ◽

pp. 1817b-1817

Author(s):

E. Pennisi

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Natural History Museum ◽

History Museum

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Catalog of the type specimens of Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera) in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.510.1.1 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 510 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

JOHN W. BROWN ◽

DAVID ADAMSKI ◽

RONALD W. HODGES ◽

STEPHEN M. BAHR

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

British Museum ◽

Smithsonian Institution ◽

Original Description ◽

Washington Dc ◽

National Museum ◽

Type Specimens ◽

History Museum ◽

Label Data ◽

Available Information

The collection of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., is second only to that of The Natural History Museum (formerly British Museum of Natural History), London, in the number of type specimens of the superfamily Gelechioidea (Lepidoptera). The Smithsonian houses 1,375 gelechioid types: 1,249 holotypes, 48 lectotypes, 1 neotype, 69 species represented by one or more syntypes, and 8 species represented by one or more pseudotypes (i.e., specimens identified as type by an accompanying label that are unlikely to be the type). Three former curators are responsible for the vast majority of the type specimens: August Busck, J. F. Gates Clarke, and Ronald W. Hodges. We present a list of the species for which a type is deposited in the USNM, organized alphabetically. For each species we provide an abbreviated reference to the original description and label data. This list represents the second contribution to a larger effort to make available information on the Lepidoptera type holdings of the USNM.

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Alfred Waterhouse’s Romanesque ‘Temple of Nature’: The Natural History Museum, London

Architectural History ◽

10.1017/s0066622x00002781 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 49 ◽

pp. 257-285 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J. B. Bullen

Keyword(s):

Natural History ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Local Politics ◽

Natural World ◽

Natural History Museum ◽

Medieval Architecture ◽

History Museum ◽

Unusual Position ◽

History Of ◽

The Temple

The Natural History Museum in London is a spectacular building in many senses (Fig. 1). As one of the outstanding landmarks of high Victorian architecture, it was designed to draw attention both to itself and to its contents. No other museum building in Britain adopted a Romanesque style on this scale; no other building had used terracotta in such a rich and decorative manner, and no other building (other than, perhaps, the University Museum, Oxford) so curiously employed external decoration to illustrate its internal function. It was calculated to appeal to a wide public and its animal sculpture was selfconsciously didactic in the way in which a number of contemporary museum buildings were created to a programme. Planned as a showcase for the nation’s imperial scientific achievements, its appearance was strongly ecclesiastical. When it opened in 1881, The Times leader called it a ‘true Temple of Nature’, which, the writer said, demonstrated ‘the Beauty of Holiness’. But for many visitors in 1881 Nature had abandoned the temple for wilder places; she had bloodied her claws, and the beauty of holiness had been replaced by the more severe, mechanistic principles formulated by Charles Darwin.The concept of a large museum of natural history was the inspiration of the great naturalist Richard Owen. It was also the crowning achievement of his lifetime in science. The ‘Temple of Nature’ that Alfred Waterhouse built for him embodied Owen’s belief that the history of the natural world was not a matter of randomness and chance but the creation of a transcendent presence. In other words, the Natural History Museum is the expression of an ideology, and its shape, size, position, style and decoration are charged with legible meanings. Some of those meanings are readily interpreted, others less so, and although the building history of the museum has been well documented, many questions remain. Why, for example, was Waterhouse chosen as its architect? What spurred him on to use terracotta in such an original way? And above all why did he risk the unusual Romanesque style? The choice of Romanesque for such a building, although it was later imitated elsewhere, was highly original. But that choice was conditioned by a substantial web of aesthetic, social, and political factors. The Natural History Museum was not just Waterhouse’s creation; it was very much the product of its time. It was born of national and local politics; it was shaped by Owen’s unusual position in the scientific world, and it was an expression of Waterhouse’s passion for early medieval architecture.

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