138 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



insect, when it dropped to the floor as if shot and never moved a wing. 

 The result is not in all cases quite so rapid, but it is never tedious. By 

 this means I prevent the mischief that ensues when a fine specimen 

 flutters in a bottle of cyanide or chloroform for several minutes, as is 

 often the case. 



I employ the same plan with all insects, and with equal success. 

 The moths that so long resisted the cyanide vapor, as mentioned above, 

 at once yielded to the deadly gasoline, and in five minutes not a living 

 larva was left in the case. 



I need scarcely add that the use of this exceedingly volatile liquid 

 never in the least degree injures the delicate plumage of the Lepidoptera. 

 Many of my best specimens have been repeatedly drenched with gaso- 

 line. In five or ten minutes they are as dry as before it was applied. 



Let me add one word more. I find the most convenient way of 

 applying the gasoline is to carry it in an ounce phial, having a cork 

 through which passes a finely pointed glass tube. The large outer end 

 of this tube is capped with a small india-rubber capsule. The whole may 

 be bought at a drug store for a few cents, under the name of a dropping 

 tube. In this way the tube is always full of liquid ready to be squirted 

 out on an insect in the net or even at rest in the open air, and the 

 specimen is at once fit to be pinned out. This I do on the spot in a 

 cigar box, or in one Hned with cork, and so avoid an accumulation of 

 material, which is a great annoyance to a man whose time is otherwise 

 occupied, or indeed to any one at the end of a hard day's work. 



The small weight of the outfit here required is an advantage not to be 

 overlooked when compared with the weight of the loaded cyanide bottle 

 usually employed. There are one or two other points which I should 

 like to mention, but having already written more than at the outset I 

 intended, I will forbear. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



BRACHYS AEROSA AND BRACHYS OVATA. 



Dear Sir : I notice Dr. Packard, in his " Bulletin No. 7," on " In- 

 sects Injurious to Forest and Shade Trees," speaks of Brachys aerosa 

 M., as probably mining the leaves of our oaks in its larval state, but says 



