isrr,.] S9 



McLac'lilau tells us that we are to reach a certain point of perfection and then stop. 

 I have tried a method with very good results. The method is precisely that laid 

 down in the " Entomologist " of last month for Macro-Lepidoptera, viz., skinning 

 the bodies and filling them with plaster of Paris until thoroughly dry. I hare 

 preserved some of the yellow-marked species, which have retained theii" colour 

 as perfectly as they were when alive, and I intend to try it on other species as soon 

 as I can get them, but this is a bad district for this order of insects. — S. L. Mosley, 

 Almondbury Bank, Huddersfield : July, 1876. 



[I see no objection to the proposed method, supposing the insects to be set on 

 short pins, so that the bodies touch the paper (an undesirable condition otherwise). 

 If on long pins and set high, it appears to me that the weight of the filled body 

 would materially increase the risk of breakage. But I scarcely understand what is 

 meant by " skinning." If, in addition to disembowelling, the inner lining membrane 

 of the abdomen be also removed, breakage (at all times difficult to avoid) becomes 

 nearly inevitable. Without wishing to discourage our correspondent's endeavours 

 to preserve the beauty of these insects, I should like to compare some of these pre- 

 pared specimens this time next year with others then newly caught. A correspondent 

 (Mr. T. D. Gibson-Carmichael) recently made to me a very useful suggestion, viz., 

 that the insects should not be killed until 24 hours (or thereabouts) after being 

 captured, so that time be allowed for the contents of the intestines to pass away 

 naturally ; but this is of comparatively little service with females full of ova. la 

 unprepared examples of Anax, Mschna, &c., the female always loses its colour more 

 than the male, owing to the decomposition of the ova. — R. McLachlan]. 



2sotesfrom Louren^o Marques, South Africa. — We got here safely yesterday^ 

 Spent a week at Durban (Natal) waiting for the coasting steamer to this. In that 

 week we collected a box full of butterflies, and I see a good many about here though 

 it is winter. I believe this will be better than Angola for butterflies — at all events, 

 the coast region. We have several species that we never saw on the west coast ; we 

 shall send a case with what we may have collected by the next steamer, which will 

 leave this in about three weeks. We like the place very much — very pretty country 

 covered with grass, bush, and small trees, and the harbour is simply magnificent. 

 It is no doubt destined to be the port of the whole of South Africa.— J. J. Monteibo 

 (in a letter to Mr. Eutherford), Louren9o Marques : June ISth, 1876. 



Observation on Mr. Jleivitsons note respecting Mr. Buxton's Collection of orange- 

 lipped Butterfiies. — Much as I appreciate the kind intention of my esteemed friend 

 Mr. Hewitson, in commending ray acumen as superior to his own and that of Mr. 

 Labrey, I cannot unblushingly accept the full measure of praise bestowed upon me 

 by the renowned Lepidoptcrist. 



It is indeed a fact that, with the help of the National and other collections, I 

 was successful in discovering the limits of each link of the continuous scries of species 

 composing the genus, and consequently I was enabled to determine eighteen of the 

 forms in Mr. Buxton's fine series to be new species (two of them previously in the 

 Museum collection), but I was not able to discover a multitude. 



I think, if it be not presumptuous to offer a suggestion to a friend so much my 

 senior, that possibly Mr. Hewitson's inability to discern tlie novelties in Mr. Buxton's 



