THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 161 



fully avoiding, however, the privet and elder. — John R. S. 

 Clifford. 



101. Crickets and Cockroaches (see Entom. for January, 

 1865, p. 146). — Mr. Hanson's note 1. c. will, 1 think, call up 

 other cockney sportsmen besides myself. The noble art of 

 " Venerie," as far as regards the " World of Insects," is ela- 

 borately taught and largely practised in this great metro- 

 polis : we have flea-powder, phosphorus-paste, wafer-bread, 

 catch-'em-alive-ohs, papier moure, and a hundred other con- 

 trivances for entrapping or slaying the unwary ; and Mr. 

 Ranson is not the first to propose the patronizing of crickets 

 on account of their presumed tendency to extirpate, or at 

 least to drive away, the cockroaches : regarded as hypothe- 

 tical the idea is excellent, but reduced to practice it is 

 scarcely so satisfactory : my own experience is that the two 

 creatures live together in exuberant abundance, and in the 

 most sociable communion, in the kitchen of — Edward New- 

 man ; 7, York Grove, Qiteen's Road, Peckham. 



102. Vreservalion of Larva. — May I invite the attention 

 of the readers of the 'Entomologist' to the very important 

 subject of preserving the larvae of the Macro-Lepidoptera ? 

 I cannot fancy a collection of these insects complete without 

 the addition of the larva and pupa of each species : this 

 would not interfere with the ordinary arrangement of them. 

 I certainly do not see the feasibility of the method recom- 

 mended by Mr. Blackburn in No. 2 of the ' Naturalist,' viz., 

 after destroying life, to make an aperture at the anus, and 

 squeeze out the whole of the contents of the body, then in- 

 flate by means of a small straw, and finally secure by tying 

 a piece of silk, the same colour as the larva, tightly above 

 the incision, to prevent the wind escaping. What a grotesque 

 appearance must a larva thus operated upon jjresenl ! I 

 have heard of a " bloated aristocracy," but that is no reason 

 why we should have absurd and unnatural-looking larvae in 

 our cabinets. Mr. Blackburn tells us to squeeze out the 

 whole of the internal parts, and of course this is absolutely 

 necessary for the preservation of all larvae ; but after doing 

 so, if we follow Mr. B.'s method of inflating, what is to 

 prevent the wind escaping through the mouth and spiracles ? 

 As to the method of restoring larvae to their original size and 

 shape, of couise nothing better than cotton wool can be 



