4^ THE entomologist's RECOKD. 



Current notes. 



Mr. McLachlan recommends arsenic as a preservative in collections 

 of insects. A solution of arsenic in rectified alcohol is recommended. 

 Arsenions acid or arsenite of soda ma_y be used. The quantity of arsenic 

 necessary is that which will just cause an apjirecialde deposit when 

 evaporated on a blackened surface. The Ijottom of drawers or boxes 

 may then be saturated, the alcohol evaporates, and the arsenic remains 

 for ever and aye. 



Students will hear with pleasure, that Mrs. Stainton has kindly pre- 

 sented the collections of her late husband to the Natural History 

 Museum, South Kensington, together with the original drawings, made 

 to illustrate The Natural History of the Thieina. The bulk of the col- 

 lections are to be kej^t separately, under the name of the " Stainton 

 Collection." 



Mr. C. G. Barrett informs us that specimens of retiferana, Wocke, 

 and margnrotana, H.-S., were sent him last winter by Herr Hoffmann, 

 and that the species which has recently been included in the British 

 list mider the latter name, is really the former. It appears that 

 Herrich-Schiiffer figured margarotana. Then Dr. Wocke sent Heinemann 

 specimens which he thought were manjarotana, and which the latter 

 described as sucli. Subsequently Dr. Wocke bred from cones of Pinus 

 sylvestris, the true margarotana, H.-S., and finding out the error he had 

 fallen into, named the species described l)y Heinemann, retiferana, so 

 that the synonomy of the species appears to bo (1) retiferana, Wocke 

 (:= margarotana, }Jem.). (2) margarotana, U.S. The former (feeding 

 on spruce fir) is the British species, the latter (feeding on P. sylvestrii^) 

 is not yet known as British. 



Mr. Fletcher records that last year (1892) he received living females 

 of Eetinia dnplana from Mr. Reid. These were sleeved on a small 

 Scotch fir ; eggs were laid ; the larvae fed in the young shoots ; the 

 imagines emerging indoors, during March (1893). 



Our readers will hear with regret that, owing to ill-health, Mr. 

 T. D. A. Cockerell is leaving Jamaica, Avhere he was only so recently 

 appointed Curator at The Institute of Jamaica, Kingston. For the 

 present his address is Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.A. 



The Secretaries of the South London Ent. Soc. wish to draw attention 

 to the fact that Excm-sions have been arranged for (1) June 10th, to 

 Oxshott, Surrey, conducted by Mr. South, and (2) July 15th, to 

 Westcrham, Kent, conducted by Mr. H. J. Turner, 



^tOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



The Early Season. — Since the middle of January we have had no 

 really cold weather, and since the middle of February we have had 

 scarcely a drop of rain. Hot sunny days and cloudless skies have been 

 the rule for more than two months, and, with the exception of a few 

 white frosts by night, after the hot days in late March, the weather 

 has been more than summer-like. The rides in the woods are cracked 

 more than is iisual in a hot July, the vegetation is as forward as is 

 usual in the middle of June, and insects are appearing in strange 



