48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
are the best, and for many years I devoured multitudes of those 
delicious little fish, both for breakfast and at dinner, not so much 
from the desire of satisfying my epicurean taste, as for obtaining 
the bottles afterwards for larve. These glasses are about 63 in. 
high and 3} in. diameter across the top, and, as they are of clear 
glass, the habits of the larve can be observed with great facility. 
At the bottom I place a sufficient quantity of baked sand, damp 
enough to suit the larve, but not so much so as to cause mould ; 
on this I place baked moss, more or less, according to what 
I consider the requirements of the larve ; then comes the food- 
plant, and this is not unfrequently planted in the damp sand. 
But now comes the plan adopted instead of tying on the muslin 
or linen covers: I procure a number of wire rings, made of the 
ordinary fencing-wire, and these are covered with tarlatan, muslin, 
net, or any other material, according to the texture required ; 
these rings, when covered, are most convenient to use, as they 
have only to be taken off and put on, and the ring is made of such 
a size as to fit easily over the mouth of the jar; and, if a thicker 
and heavier wire were used in their construction, and they were 
made to fit well, I believe they would baffle some of Mr. Barrett’s 
Tortricide. In the case of some of those larve, such as Cossus 
ligniperda and others, which cannot be kept under restraint by 
cotton or linen fabrics, I have the rings covered with perforated 
zine, and for smaller larve, such as the Sesiide, &c., with very 
fine iron-wire gauze.— Owen 8S. Winson ; Carmarthen. 
A Wasp In WintEer.—If, as I believe, it is a rare occurrence. 
some of your readers may be interested to hear that a queen wasp 
came into the house last Friday (Dec. 29th), and must have 
remained concealed somewhere, for early the next morning she 
killed herself by flying into the flame of a candle on the dressing- 
table. Friday was a very wild but dark and rainy day here, not 
one on which I should have expected to see a wasp about even 
some months earlier in the season.—(Miss) ELEANOR BayLey ; 
Hurstpierpoint, Jan. 1, 1883. 
[The female wasp had no doubt been hybernating in the 
neighbourhood, and had probably been disturbed while in a semi- 
torpid state, brought about by the exceptionally warm weather we 
have lately experienced in the South of England. —Ep.} 
