> vi 
168 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
a bubble of air was attached to the aperture at the extremity of its 
tail. Indeed the insect seemed not to have suffered from its 
sojourn in the sand, where it must have lain for some three 
months at least. I may mention that I have seen it stated, 
in a standard work, that the food of these larve is supposed to 
consist of animalcule, but it appears to me that they are 
vegetable feeders, subsisting upon the Conferve which abound in 
stagnant pools. Perhaps some of your correspondents will. 
inform me on this point.—Asgorr G. Laxer; 4, Endwell Road, 
Brockley Rise, Brockley, S.E., April 28, 1880. 
A Successrut Moru-rrar.—tl have been using a contrivance 
this season which will really repay one for the trifling trouble and 
expense involved in its construction. It consists first of a gallon 
glass jar, heavily charged with cyanide of potassium. To the 
top of this is fitted a funnel, the spreading mouth of which opens 
at right angles to the axis of the poisoned jar. The lower end 
of the funnel is four or five inches below the mouth of the jar, 
and has an opening three inches in diameter, the funnel mouth 
being twelve or thirteen inches across. Opposite the mouth of 
the funnel, and on the opposite side of the jar, is soldered to the 
funnel a sheet of tin so bent as to thoroughly enclose a lamp. 
The lamp is supported by a piece of tin hinged to the outer edge 
of this projection. The lamp being placed in position, the 
tin support is made to rest upon the projecting part of the jar 
below its neck. Immediately in front of the light is placed 
a sheet of mica. The whole contrivance is placed within a tight 
wooden box, and a tin flap is also arranged above the lamp 
chimney as a precaution against an undesired conflagration. 
The moth, attracted by the lhght, flies into the mouth of the 
funnel, is stopped by the mica, and, after fluttering a very short 
time, is so far overcome by the fumes of the potassium as to fall 
within the poisoned jar, whence it cannot emerge. A projecting 
lip of an inch or so in height is soldered to the lower edge of the 
mouth of the funnel in such a way as to catch any insect that 
falls outside the mouth of the jar. It thus is most likely to 
return to the light. I have taken with this contrivance hundreds 
of Noctuide and Coleoptera, among the former many things— 
especially among the Tineide—entirely new to my cabinet.— 
G: S. Wesrcorr ; in Annual Report of the Entomological Society 
of the Province of Ontario, 1879. 
