6J. [March, 



As a protection against the destructive eifects of grease, I need hardly refer to 

 Dr. Knaggs' paper, in which he demonstrates that it is of but small, if anj advan- 

 tage (vide Ent. Mo. Mag. (2), v, pp. 252 et seq.). There is, therefore, as far as I can 

 see, no advantage eave neatness, and when this is obtained at so serious a loss of 

 stability, I venture to think that entomologists would be wise to forego this small 

 recommendation. 



Our predecessors were wiser in their generation, and used sufficiently strong 

 white English pins for their specimens, with the result that such insects as P. dispar 

 and L. Acis, &c., are as fit for removal now as they were when captured fifty years 

 ago. The result of their having used the miserable fine black pin so much sought 

 after in these degenerate days, would have been the utter destruction of by far the 

 majority of the specimens or species now extinct, and so much coveted by modern 

 collectors. I have, therefore, grave doubts whether the modern method of pinning 

 on fine black pins is an improvement upon the old, it certainly fails in the im- 

 portant character of stability. — F. Lovell Keays, 26, Charles Street, St. James's 

 Square, S.W. : February, 1896. 



Asyehna ceratella, Z., two years in the larval state. — In Ent. Mo. Mag., ser. 2, 

 vi, 132, is recorded the very limited amount of success that I experienced in 1894 in 

 breeding Asyehna ceratella from galls on stems of Polygonum aviculare, containing 

 full-fed larvae, kindly sent nie in August, 1893, by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher, who found 

 them in a field on the downs near Shoreham, Sussex. Thinking it not improbable 

 that some of the larvae might be lying over, I sorted out the galls in the autumn of 

 1894, and leaving in the flower-pot, almost filled with soil, all that showed no exit 

 hole, followed the plan of Mr. B. A. Bower, who alone had succeeded in breeding 

 the moths freely in that cold summer, and sunk the pot in a flower-bed, fully exposed 

 to the sunshine, of which there was such an abundance last spring. In May I was 

 delighted to see that in many of the galls exit holes were being bored, a sure sign 

 that the larvae were about to pupate, and on June 9th the first imago appeared, being 

 followed between then and July 3rd by 46 others (varying, as do the galls them- 

 selves, greatly in size), of which, however, a few were cripples, together with some 

 half-dozen examples of an ichneumon-fly not yet determined. The moth emerges 

 from the pupa inside the gall, and then forces its way through the exit hole, which 

 is bored close to the apex as a rule, but in rare instances close to the base of the 

 gall, the pupa shell being left in the cocoon in the interior of the gall ; escape from 

 the gall usually takes place between about 8 and 11 a.m., but more individuals were 

 observed drying their wings at about 8.30 a.m. than at any other time. I regret 

 now that I did not divide the galls into two lots, and keep one in a cooler place, to 

 see whether some larvae miglit not have been induced to lie over till the third year. 

 Mr. Fletcher, whose success in breeding them in 1894 was no better than mine, was 

 also rewarded with a goodly series of imagines last year, but I fear that others, who 

 might then have been equally fortunate, had thrown away their batches of galls 

 after the first year's failure. It seems clear that the galls should be kept out of 

 doors during the winter, but should all along be exposed to as much sunshine as 

 possible, so that the larvae may be induced to pupate and produce moths in the 

 following summer. Probably in nature also some larvae often lie over, waiting for a 



