162 THF, ENTOMOLOGIST. 



and, I hope, a considerable number of larvae perished by starvation, 

 as one day in May I noticed them, by no means full-fed, hanging in 

 ropes from the leafless boughs. Starlings have done yeoman service 

 latterly as scavengers of this pest. — H. R.-B.] 



Notes from North Cornwall. — Towards the end of May larvae 

 of L. quercus were so abundant that I collected over 100 specimens 

 from one strip of hedge. They were feeding on hawthorn, wild 

 plum, bramble, and one on honeysuckle. The majority seem to 

 prefer resting in the shade on the stems inside the bramble bushes. 

 Of those kept, one spun up on June 4th. On May 27th I caught 

 a fresh specimen of Melitcea aurinia, though I have not noticed 

 the scabious plants here in any abundance. A worn specimen of 

 P. fuliginosa was found resting on a grass stem. May 31st. On 

 June 1st a female M. rubi was caught flying heavily over the dunes 

 after sunset. Li&vviB oi Lithosia lurideola were common, feeding on 

 the leaves of bramble bushes on the sand dunes. — H. K. Woolacott, 

 St. Merryn, North Cornwall. 



Shooting Larv^, — On going my rounds of sentry visiting this 

 morning, I heard some shooting going on in an orchard near at hand 

 and went to investigate, and found the farmer with a shot-gun firing 

 into the nests of Bomhyx neustria. There is a plague of these on the 

 apple and plum trees this year, two or three nests on nearly every 

 tree, and sometimes quite out of reach at extreme top of tree. My 

 experience hitherto has been that they are to be found on hedgerows 

 quite low down. The farmer told me that sometimes they use as 

 much as 10 lb. of powder and very small shot. I suggested a 

 mixture of paraffin and water, which might be applied with a syringe, 

 as likely to be less damaging to the trees, but see in to-day's ' Times ' 

 J lb. of acetate of lead-paste and 10 gallons of water advocated ; 

 this, of course, would kill everything that touched the leaves after- 

 wards, such as bees, flies, etc. — R. B. Robertson ; Oare Camp, 

 Faversham, May 29th, 1918. 



Relaxing Lepidoptera. — Many collectors doubtless find consider- 

 able difficulty in relaxing large tropical butterflies that they receive 

 folded in papers. The following simple method of relaxing them was 

 habitually used by the late Mr. J. Hill, of Little Eaton, and com- 

 municated by him to me shortly before his death. I have tried the 

 method, and have found it quite successful. The requisites are a 

 spirit-lamp and tripod, the lid of an ordinary cocoa-tin, and a large, 

 common pin (not an entomological one). The lid of the cocoa-tin is 

 filled with warm water to the depth of half an inch ; the spirit-lamp 

 is set so that the flame is very minute — in fact, just enough to keep 

 the watar in the tin simmering but not boiling. The pin is inserted 

 into the thorax of the butterfly, into its side at right angles to the 

 axis of the wings. The butterfly is then placed in the simmering 

 water, and it floats obliquely because the pin acts as a keel. After 

 two or three minutes' cooking, the pin is inserted into the opposite 

 side of the thorax and the process repeated. The body and bases of 

 the wings will be moist and soft, and the insect well relaxed. There 

 should be no undue moisture on the rest of the wings, and what there 

 is readily dries off without damaging the specimen. When Mr. Hill 



