ENTOMOLOGY. 285 



With, regard to the stopper being apt to fly out of the ammonia bottle, 

 and requiring to be tied down, the same takes place -with chloroform, 

 when at least the chloroform is good. The best place to get it genuine, 

 is at Apothecaries' Hall. iEther is not chloroform, though I fancy it is 

 often sold for it in the country, and it appears that Mr. Crewe has been 

 "done" the same by. 



The best mode of proceeding is to take with you a quantity of chip pill- 

 boxes which may be bought at any druggist's, in "nests" as they are called, 

 at the rate of twelve dozen for one shilling and fourpence. You put the 

 moths either from the tree or out of the net into those, and so bring them 

 home. It is wonderful how quiet and still they keep, instead of knocking 

 about as might be supposed. In the evening they will just move, or per- 

 haps flutter, if you open the lid of the box, but by leaving them till the 

 morning, which is the proper time, for you should never attempt to set a 

 moth by caudle, lamp, or gas-light, they will lay perfectly still and motionless, 

 and you can then see which are really worth keeping, and which should 

 be returned to liberty again. The former you shake out of the boxes into 

 a wide-mouthed chloroform bottle, with a few drops of chloroform renewed 

 every now and then as may be required, and filled with small pieces of 

 blotting-paper to absorb any moisture from the chloroform or the moths 

 themselves, and to prevent injury from their rubbing together, and in a 

 quarter of an hour you may safely take them out, "kai ta loipa." — F. O. 

 Moebis, Nunburnholme Rectory, November 1st., 1858. 



Methods of Killing Lepidoptera. — The readers of "The Naturalist" must be 

 much obliged to Mr. Crewe for the benefit of his experience in killing moths, 

 as given at page 261. My experience has caused me to decide in favour of 

 chloroform and a saturated solution of oxalic acid; the former only to quiet 

 the moth, the latter to kill it. A camel's-hair brush dipped in chloroform 

 will settle half-a-dozen moths by inserting a little in each box and closing it 

 tight again. In half a minute you can pin and kill them quite comfortably. 

 I use a sharp-pointed quill, which I prefer to a steel pen, for pricking in 

 the solution of oxalic acid. Mr. Crewe admits that ammonia would spoil 

 many species, and enumerates twenty-six which must not be killed with it; 

 and for these exceptions recommends what I think good for all. It appears 

 to me very disadvantageous to be burdened with two sets of apparatus when 

 one set would do, especially when travelling. The time lost in using the 

 ammonia appears to me the great objection to its use. Mr. Crewe says, "leave 

 the moth half an hour exposed to the ammonia." From his own experience, 

 given in the previous number of "The Naturalist," at page 237, a "good dose" 

 for two hours did not suffice to take the lives of Rhamnaria and Vetularia. 

 This loss of time would not suit a collector who had been out all day, and 

 brought home a hundred specimens or more, all to be pinned, killed, and 

 set out the same evening. Should there be compensating advantages attending 

 the use of ammonia, I hope Mr. Crewe will make them known. — T. Chapman, 

 Glasgow, November 13th., 1858. 



VOL. VIII. 2 P 



