KILLING LEEIDOPTERA. 283 



blood, the myriads of moving corpuscles which we observed since 1849, etc. 

 M. Joly thinks, as we do, that these maladies are not contagious, and his 

 experiments agree with our own, in proving such to be the case. Like us 

 he has also given Muscardine to these worms, inoculating them with sporules 

 taken from insects very clearly affected, or by pouring these sporules over 

 their bodies, which is equivalent to a species of inoculation. As to the 

 remedies, he has tried all those which have been noticed, except sugar, but 

 equally without success. In short, he ends by the usual recommendations of 

 tending them carefully when young, following nature, etc. The most interesting 

 part of this communication is the following: — "I have repeated the experiments 

 of M. Rollin, on the alimentation of Silkworms by means of Chica. It is 

 true that I have obtained cocoons coloured with red, but I have had similar 

 ones by merely painting the body of the worm with colouring matter, at 

 the moment it was going to climb upon the plant. This is a new proof that 

 we cannot obtain from this experiment, or from those analogous to it, by 

 M. Blanchard, any positive conclusion in favour of the so-called tracheal 

 {peritracheene) circulation of insects." 



[The above Report is taken from the "Revue et Magazin de Zoologie," for 

 August. These Reports are drawn up by the Editor of the "Revue," and 

 Secretary to the Academy, M. F. E. Guerin-Meneville. — Ed.] 



THE BEST MODE OF KILLING LEPIDOPTERA. 



BY THE EEV. F. 0. M0EEIS. 



I must caution the entomological public, those at least of them who are as 

 yet "in statu pupillari," against adopting Mr. Crewe's recipe of the ammonia, 

 in so far as he recommends it as preferable to chloroform. It is an injurious 

 prescription, if its adoption should lead to the discontinuance of the latter. 

 I have sent to him by post, some specimens of moths set by me, taken at 

 random from a "lot" of others killed by chloroform, a few "e multis;" and 

 have asked him whether they are any worse for the operation, and at the 

 same time, whether he can send me any killed after his mode, that are 

 better by comparison for the latter.* Mr. Crewe says that he has "over and 

 over agaiu" killed insects with chloroform, and has "invariably" found that it 

 has turned them so rigid and stiff, that it is "impossible" to set them out 

 properly. I grant that it does make them rigid and stiff, but I deny "toto 

 ccelo," that there is any impossibility whatever in getting them right again. 

 If you fail in doing so, the fault is in yourself alone, in ninety-nine cases 

 out of a hundred, for I allow that there may be that proportion of exceptional 

 cases, and not in the effect of the chloroform. A clumsy hand will no doubt 

 fail, but a sixteenth cousin of the "neat-handed Phyllis" will be sure to 

 overcome the difficulty. All you have to do is to get all the fingers of the 



* Since the above was in type I have heard from Mr. Crewe in answer to my note. He 

 says, "I cannot but confess that the insects you have enclosed to me are very nicely set, 

 but I return you half-a-dozen which I am quite ready to put against them." They have 

 come safe. Two are well set; they have proper-sized pins. The other four have the pins 

 too large, two of them the wings holloived, and the pins tumbling forward. — F. 0. M. 



