Australian Insects. An Introductory Handbook

Sydney, Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, 1944 (revised second edition)/ 1942. Large octavo, 303 pages with over 400 illustrations. Cloth a little marked; minimal signs of use; an excellent copy with the good pictorial dustwrapper (marked, torn and chipped with minor loss, but the acidic paper on which it is printed suggests few examples would have survived in any condition). Loosely inserted in the book is a typed letter signed from Keith McKeown to 'Dear Hans' (small octavo, two pages on one leaf, on The Australian Museum, College Street, Sydney letterhead, 3 May 1949). We know this to be Hans Mincham AM (1912-2007), 'educator, naturalist, writer, historian, conservationist, musician'. His obituary in the Adelaide newspaper 'The Advertiser' notes that at the age of 12, 'his observations of a rare insect, the mantispid, launched him on a 60-year journey of research and discovery, culminating in a scientific article in "The Naturalist" in his 81st year. He engaged in many expeditions into the inland, one in 1956-57 to the Ediacara area, yielding significant finds of pre-Cambrian fossils, one of which was named after him - "Parvancorina minchami". Two bugs and a beetle also carry his name .'. The letter is a beauty, even if you have no real affection for insects. Just knowing that people like Keith McKeown and Hans Mincham corresponded in this fashion is satisfaction enough. A few sentences should suffice, but there are many like this in the letter (and yes, the Mantispid does get a guernsey too!). 'Your note on the stridulation of the females of Elephantodeta farinosa is most interesting, and I'm very pleased to have it. I never knew that the females in that group were musically endowed. Tillyard stated emphatically that female Mole Crickets do not stridulate - but they do. I've never been stung by a Chrysid; so again your notes are good. On checking back, I found you are correct about your Chrysid. I, rashly, identified from the living insect, being loth, at that stage, to kill it'. [2 items].…