FACTS ABOUT EUSTROMA RETICULATA. 33 



probably some thousands of specimens, in almost all cases with 

 success. I have not experimented with the Tineina, for my eye- 

 sight is no longer equal tor pinning a Nepticida, for instance ; 

 but I have successfully operated on such species as Grapholitha 

 compositella, Steganopti/dia nanana, and others equally small. 



In addition to repinned specimens, I now submit all others 

 to the vapour of formaldehyde immediately they are off the 

 setting boards, in order to obtain the fixity of the wings which 

 it gives. This is more especially advantageous in cases in 

 which, for want of space or otherwise, it is not convenient 

 to leave them on the boards for the full time of, say, one 

 month. I find I can with perfect safety take small specimens 

 oli" the boards in a week, and larger ones in a fortnight, by 

 giving them the formaldehyde bath afterwards. Of course, the 

 necessary time will be governed by the weather. 



I do not find it has any ill effects upon the specimens, though 

 I have not exi)erimented with some of the very delicate greens 

 of, say, the emeralds ; but it does not seem to harm Lepto- 

 gramnia literana. It is, however, advisable to be careful with 

 green insects, and in cases of doubt to experiment with an old 

 specimen or two before risking a valued series. 



The only criticism I have seen or heard against the use of 

 formaldehyde is one from the pen of the late Colonel Manders, 

 who had found that specimens which came under its influence 

 would never relax again, and therefore could not be reset. I 

 think, however, this is a question of the amount of the substance 

 used. I have often reset specimens so treated with perfect ease. 



Youlgreave, South Croydon, 

 January oth, I'JIH. 



FACTS ABOUT EUSTROMA RETICULATA. 



By The Kev. Euston Nurse. 



The story of how Mr. Hodgkinson discovered Eiistroma 

 reticulata on "the hill behind the Ferry Hotel, Windermere, is well 

 known, and how an entomologist followed the discoverer and was 

 led astray by driving to a distant scar where the food-plant did 

 not exist, and how, on another attempt, the same entomologist 

 followed him unobserved to the right locality, and how they both 

 kept the secret till the food-plant and the insect ceased to exist 

 in that, the only known locality in the British Isles, is only one 

 among the many stirring stories in connection with this rare 

 moth. 



After an interval of some years, and about ten years ago, a 

 clerical friend of mine and I, having searched all the places 

 where the wild balsam grows in the Lake District— from Keswick 



