118 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



1. In the case of specimens which tend to float, on account either of an 

 oily surface, or through the accumulation of air bubbles (as e. g. in Arctiids, 

 etc.) a preliminary immersion for a few moments in 70% or 90% aicohoi will be 

 found to facilitate their contact with and penetration by the fluid. 



2. In dealing with large or transparent larvae, it is weil to starve the 

 specimens for a few hours before killing, in order that the alimentary canal may 

 be emptied of its contents. For this suggestion I am indebted to Mr. A. F. 

 Winn. 



3. In the case of elongated larvae, if tubes be employed, they should be 

 almost completely filled with the fluid A., and then allowed to lie horizontally 

 until the transfer to fluid B, is made. 



While it is not claimed that the above method is applicable to all forms, 

 or that all colours will be permanently preserved, it has yielded good results 

 in the hands of the writer, and in those of the gentlemen who have so kindly, 

 at his suggestion, given it an extended trial. Larvae of widely-differing types, 

 such as the following, have been satisfactorily preserved: — various Arctiids and 

 Geometrids, Envanessa antiopa, Datana spp., and Nymphula maculaJis, together 

 with numerous Coleopterous larvae and the nymphal stages of a number of 

 Hemiptera. 



In any event the method is one of easy application, and the ingredients 

 for the preparation of the fluid are cheaply and easily obtainable. No more 

 satisfactory means of preserving insect larvae and pupae is known to the writer, 

 by whom this note is submitted in the hope that the method, while admittedly 

 not of universal application, will be found to be of service, and by whom any 

 reports of its successful employment, or suggestions as to its modification, will 

 be gratefully received. 



Zoological Laboratory, McGill University, Oct. 29, 1918. 



NOTE ON CHALEPUS NERVOSA PANZ. AND ITS PROBABLE 



FOOD PLANT. 



The reading of the "Notes on Chalepus rubra in New Jersey," published 

 in the December number of the Canadian Entomologist, has prompted me to 

 give a short account of a somewhat similar observation I made last Spring 

 on Chalepus nervosa Panzer, the only one of the five recorded Canadian 

 species that I have talcen in this Province. 



On May 16th, 1918, while doing some outdoor entomological work in 

 that part of Montreal mountain bordering the grounds of the Outremont Golf 

 Club, I noticed that every time the sweeping net was being emptied of its con- 

 tents, a good supply of this little beetle could be dropped into the killing bottle. 

 The thought struck me of finding out which plant they were being swept off. 

 An active search was then made all around, which soon gave me the desired 

 result The slow, harmless little being was found in colonies of four, eight or 

 more on the leaves of Solidago latifolia L., then but a few inches tall. Some 

 of the plants sheltered no less than a dozen specimens. As it was surely mating 

 time, one would have been able to take hundreds of them in an hour. Never 

 before had I met them in such numbers. 



They are most easily taken with the hand, provided you do not touch the 

 plant before seizing the insect; a jerk of the stem will bring down the whole 



May, 1919 



