“I’m looking for the wombat in the altarpiece now,” says Heather Dalton, the historian who found a cockatoo in a 16th-century Italian altarpiece created long before Captain Cook washed up in Australia (Report, 27 June). She might enjoy the 17th-century painting of the Last Supper in Cuzco Cathedral in Peru, which shows a festive spread of wine, bread, fruit and, at the very centre of the painting, a roast guinea pig.
Professor Rebecca Earle
University of Warwick
• I have seen a few white butterflies but nothing more colourful (Letters, 28 June). But where are all the ladybirds? So far this year I have seen two larvae and one pupa – both, I think, of the dreaded harlequin – but no adults. I hope they come soon, as I have laid on a special feast for them of many large succulent blackfly.
Tim Gossling
Cambridge
• Interesting though it is to know that the Milky Way has “10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of gloop, or enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter” (Report, 28 June), it would have been more helpful to know to what depth this might cover a country the size of Wales.
Tony Robinson
Frinton-on-Sea, Essex
• The finest and earliest version of Route 66 is the one recorded by the Nat King Cole trio in 1946, preceding more famous versions by Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones by a decade or more (End of the road feared for legendary Route 66, 27 June).
Chris Hardy
London
• I also loved my Morris Traveller (Letters, passim). The best bit about it was the amazing mushrooms that grew out of the wooden frame around the side windows – they always drew admiring glances.
Brian Timms
Glasgow
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