28 APHOKISMATA ENTOMOLOGICA. 



they are not the least injured, so that they can be set out at any 

 convenient opportunity; it also completely destroys the mites or mould 

 if the specimens be infected, and it will be found to have a great many 

 advantages over the old plan of damp sand. I was in hope, from ex- 

 periments that I made on two or three green species, that the colours 

 would not fly; but I since regret to find, on further trial, that Hippar- 

 dius papilionariuSy Hemithea vernaria, and Hemitliea cythisaria are 

 considerably changed by it. Mr. Dale informs me that it answers equally 

 well with the other orders; — he having relaxed nearly the whole of his 

 Dragon-flies, and it is much used at Bristol for the Hymenoptera.'" 



Postscript. — The following items are extracted from Mr. Edward 

 Newman's ^'Familiar Introduction to the History of Insects:" — "The 

 Entomologist should be provided with two wide- mouthed vials; one 

 empty and perfectly dry, having a quill passing through the cork, and 

 going a considerable way below it: this quill may be stopped at top 

 by a second small cork: within the vial some blotting-paper may be 

 kept, which not only absorbs any moisture, but serves as something to 

 crawl on for the living insects which are taken from time to time and 

 dropped through the quill. The other vial should be made very strongly, 

 well corked, and three parts filled with spirit; common whisky is the 

 best; pure alcohol injures the colours." "^Quills cut off close to the 

 feather are very useful for bringing home minute insects of all classes. 

 The aperture should be most carefully corked, the corks being cut 

 expressly for the purpose, and should be of sufficient length to go 

 half-an-inch into the quill, and thus not liable to come out in the pocket." 



The following, by Mr. T. B. Hall, of Woodside, Liverpool, is from 

 ^'The JN'aturalist," old series, volume iii., page 159. — "Substitute for 

 Cork Lining in Entomological Cabinets. — Having forwarded the 

 receipt committed to you by Mr. Morris to a very excellent Entomologist 

 of Liverpool, A. Melly, Esq., for the purpose of asking his opinion 

 respecting it, he states that he has always been in the habit of using 

 composition instead of cork, and that he finds it not only cheaper, but 

 quite equal to cork, and that on the Continent the plan is generally 

 adopted. The one he employs is much harder, and is composed of 

 two-thirds of the best bees'-wax and one-third of the best resin; but 

 he observes that, in this climate, the addition of tallow cannot do much 

 harm, and will save something in the cork: the great point is to melt 

 it well, and to pass the resin through a sieve before the wax is added." 



The pins you want to take out with you when collecting, to put 



