92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



same as that method which I originally described. On pp. 19 and 

 20, vol. xlviii, ' Ent.,' Mr. Bertram Kershaw stated that he had 

 already forestalled me in the use of formaldehyde for fixing insects, 

 but he had tried a different method and apparently had not published 

 his idea. At the same time he suggested hypodermic injections of 

 formaldehyde in ether. As a medical man, I am constantly giving 

 hypodermic injections, and the impossibility of giving them to 

 "micros" was obvious, so I experimented on " macros " which I 

 had previously relaxed (p. 112, vol. xlix, ' Ent.'). This apparently is 

 the article to which Mr. Sheldon now refers. As regards Mr. 

 Kershaw's remarks in last month's ' Entomologist,' where he 

 suggests that flaws in the enamel coating of black pins are respon- 

 sible for the formation of " verdigris," there can be no doubt that 

 he is perfectly correct ; but, even so, I venture to suggest that 

 formaldehyde will help to combat this evil, because " verdigris " 

 after all is only an oleate of copper, formed by the combination of 

 the fatty acids of the decomposing insect and the copper in the pin. 

 (True verdigris is acetate of copper, quite a different thing to that 

 which is known as "verdigris" to entomologists.) Mr. Kershaw 

 points out on p. 20, vol. xlviii, ' Ent.,' that in testing " butter is 

 hardened by formalin vapour." Therefore, if all the olein that is in 

 an insect is fixed by the use of formaldehyde, that process of 

 decomposition which we know as "grease" will be prevented, and 

 the subsequent formation of " verdigris " should be eliminated. As 

 a matter of fact, I have used formaldehyde vapour for the past five 

 years for all my insects, and so far {absit omen) I have no " verdigris," 

 " grease," or mites in my cabinets. — Winstan St. A. St. John ; 

 Derwent House, Derby. 



Lepidoptera of the Egyptian Frontiers. — I noted some 

 interesting lepidoptera on the Egyptian borders in 1917. On the 

 Sinai-Palestine border Tanicus balcanicus and T. theophrastus fiew 

 together at Eafa. Ghondrostega pastrana, var. palestrana, Stgr., and 

 Euproctis judcea were common in November. P. icarus and C 

 phlaas occurred very sparingly north of Eafa, but apparently not on 

 the Egyptian side of the frontier. On the Cyrenaican border a 

 curious, small, dark form of P. machaon has turned up at Solium ; 

 also Erynnis {Carcharodus) rhamses, Eev., and M. deserticola. In 

 the spring B. viesentina, T. fausla, and C. florella were all to be seen 

 in the desert near Cairo, and a Melitcea, almost identical with the 

 south European form of M. didyma, clearly an ab. of the normal 

 M. deserticola, caused by the abundant rains of the last two or three 

 winters. — P. P. Graves ; Capt., Cairo, January, 1918. 



Aricia medon, ab. artaxerxes, in Suffolk. — I have in my 

 collection three specimens of Aricia medon, ab. artaxerxes, that were 

 taken by the late Dr. David Smart on Lakenheath Warren, Suffolk, 

 some time in the sixties. He told me that this form, which I believe 

 was then considered specifically distinct, was during one season not 

 uncommon in a very limited locality on the Warren. This record is 

 belated, but may be of interest as I have met with no other record 

 of var. artaxerxes from southern Britain. — H. Douglas Smart ; 

 Capt., E.A.M.C, Eugeley Camp, Staffs. 



