4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



suffer any unpleasant effects whatever. This fact would seem to 

 render absurd any attempt to connect P. similis with the symp- 

 toms developed almost immediately after handling the insects in 

 my case. Still I have always been under the impression that 

 " the goldtail moth " was the cause of my discomfiture on that 

 particular summer's day in 1865. I may say that I am glad that 

 Mr. Joseph Anderson can so satisfactorily connect cause and 

 effect as he has done in his note respecting the urticating 

 properties of the imago of Portliesia similis {Lijxiris auriflua), 

 Entom. xvii. 275. Mr, Anderson must not suppose that I rejoice 

 in liis misfortune ; I am only glad that he so directly traced the 

 irritation he experienced to its proper source. 



I have several times collected larvae of Portliesia {Liparis) 

 chrysorrhoea and bred imagines therefrom. In collecting the 

 larvae I had of course to handle them, but I had no occasion to 

 touch the cocoons, and when the imagines came out they were 

 pill-boxed and transferred to the ammonia jar, only touching 

 them in the process of pinning. No symptoms of irritation 

 resulted from contact with either larva or imago of this species. 

 Had I interfered with the cocoon, irritation might have ensued, 

 but of this I am by no means certain. 



Figurativel}^ speaking, entomologists are not as a rule " thin- 

 skinned." But as a fact, the cuticle of most people — entomo- 

 logists or not — is more or less sensitive to irritants of any kind. 

 I knew a man whose skin was so extremely sensitive that the 

 immediate contact of a woollen under-garment therewith gave 

 rise to symptoms analogous to " nettle-rash," if it did not indeed 

 cause true urticaria. One individual may be far more susceptible 

 than another to the urticating properties of certain Lepidoptera. 

 Probably even the same individual may at some periods of his 

 life be more prone than at others to suffer from contact with 

 the larva, cocoon, or imago of urticating Lepidoptera. I should 

 think that when one has been hard at work collecting, and 

 the " pores of the skin " are freely opened, one would be very 

 liable to experience the full irritating j)ower of certain larval 

 hairs, &c. 



Since 1865 I have only once experienced anything like the 

 torments inflicted on me by the P. similis imagines. The 

 instance I refer to liappened on my first introduction to the larva 

 of Bombyx rubi in 1874. T had been picking up a large number 



