cdrrbnt notes. 55 



Mr. W. F. H. Blaudfoid has recently strongly recommended caustic 

 potash for cleaning Coleoptera. The usual substances for cleaning dirty, 

 greasy or mouldy insects — chloroform, ether, benzine, alcohol, soaj)- 

 and-water, i<:c. — are all useful in tlieir way, and for ordinary greasy 

 specimens chloroform is considered the most valuable. But for really 

 dirty insects caustic potash is said to excel. Two stoppered bottles are 

 required ; one, for methylated s})irit ; the <:)ther, for a strong solution of 

 potassium hydrate in distilled water (two drachms to the ounce). The 

 other requirements are, a vessel containing distilled water, sable brushes 

 (which must be dijiped into the solution), sheet cork, and blotting- 

 paper. The insect should be dipped into the spirit, then immersed in 

 the potash solution for about half-a-minute, or less ; the superfluous 

 moisture should afterwards be drained off and the insect jDinned on the cork 

 for three or four minutes. It should then be held under the distilled 

 water, and the dirt and potash l)rushed out. When cleaned, the insect 

 should be allowed to dry, and pubescent insects should be placed in 

 alcohol, the moisture removed by blotting-paper, and the insect quickly 

 dried. 



Prof. Pabst of Chemnitz, has published a little pamphlet on the 

 occurrence of that migratory species, Acheront/a atropos, on the Con- 

 tinent. Fuchs, in 1890, showed that it had become acclimatized in 

 Lower Austria and the neighbourhood of Vienna, and Dr. Pabst 

 believes that a large number of migrants from this Austrian colony 

 have spread over Germany. In several of the warmer parts of Ger- 

 many, such as Aschaffenburg (Stett. ent. Zeit., 1887, p. 257), Coblenz 

 {Ent. Zeit., Guben vi., 82), and even near Meissen in Saxony (Iris., v., 

 396), the successful hybernation of the species has apparently been 

 demonstrated ; but it is not thought that it has established a permanent 

 hold on these portions of its annected territory, for it seems probable that 

 very cold winters will in time always finish it, and then the continuance 

 of colonies in tliese localities will depend on fresh immigi'ants. Dr. Pabst 

 is of opinion that a long continued or permanent occupation of German 

 territory has not yet been proven. In North Germany the sjiecies is 

 never found so early as May or June. With regard to its flight. Dr. 

 Pabst thinks that A. atropos exceeds Choerocampa celerio, C. nerii, or 

 Deilephila livornica, in strength and power of endurance. Its short 

 tongue enables the insect to feed on exudations from wounded trees, to 

 say nothing of its predatory lialnts in connection with bee-hives, and 

 A. atropos can supply itself with sustenance in this way more readily 

 than its long-tongued allies. Pairing, probably, always takes place at 

 the locality where the moth emerges from the pupa ; the more northern 

 captures seem to be always of females, urged by the necessity for 

 depositing their eggs to their lengthy journeys. Tlie males seem to be 

 exhausted by the act itself, and consequently to perish at their homes 

 (N.B. — The sex of captured migrants sliould always be noted). In 

 addition to the potato and Datura, Dr. Pabst enumerates ash, carrot, 

 lilac, jessamine and apple besides Euonymns enropaens and Rtibia 

 tinctornm, as food-plants of the species, and records the finding of a 

 arva in a cabbage-field ; the said larva was roared on cabbage leaves, 

 pupated, and finally the moth emerged. Dr. Pabst notes the fact that, 

 in northern regions, the species enjoys immunity from the attacks of 

 ichneumons or Tachinnc. 



The Kev. E. N. Bloomfield (E.M.M., Jan., p. 2t), .idds Srioptrri/.r 

 consobrinus, Kl. to the British Tcnthredinida?. It differs from S. costalis 



