14 AN ADDRESS TO 



down the back. I have tried it with various kinds of food, 

 and it w r ill not eat ; can you tell me what it is, and on what 

 plant I should feed it ? Your invitation to those in search 

 of information encourages me to trouble you with this 

 inquiry. 



" Believe me, dear Sir, 



" Yours very truly, 



The reader will observe, that though addressing a perfect 

 stranger, he commences " Dear Sir ;" this is the etiquette 

 amongst Naturalists ; an Entomologist, writing to another 

 for the first time, never thinks of beginning " Sir;" that 

 would be considered very stiff and formal. 



The inquiries I have given are two, which I should have 

 been very glad to have put when I was young to any more 

 practised hand, as it was long before I obtained any speci- 

 mens of Saturnia Carpini, and the first larva I found of 

 Acronycta Aceris I found on some palings, and though I 

 tried it with various kinds of food, I suppose I never offered 

 it either horse-chestnut or sycamore, and it soon died of 

 hunger. 



Insects are transmitted from one Entomologist to another 

 by the post; with larvae the matter is very simple, as all 

 that is necessary is to place them in a small tin box, with 

 some of the proper food, and wrap up the box in paper and 

 direct it; perfect insects, however, require to be handled 

 with more caution — and in the first place they should be 

 carefully pinned into a small, light, yet strong corked wooden 

 box, and those which had large bodies should have them 

 carefully pinned down by two or more pins going crossways 

 over the body ; the box should then be carefully wrapped 

 up in several thicknesses of cotton-wool, and then enclosed 

 in paper; the object of the cotton-wool is to prevent any jar 

 to the insects when the box is being stamped in the post- 



