182 APHOEJSMATA ENTOMOLfiaiCA. 



'DE OMNIBUS REBUS ET QUIBUSDAM ALIS.' 



I HAVE almost exhausted the previous part of this wide subject under tlie 

 former he.ids, but I must endeavour to say something under the latter part of 

 it; and, first, I may add, that in order to keep the wings sufficiently down 

 with the silver paper, two or even three pieces will sometimes be required on 

 each side. Further, the mode jxist mentioned of drying the wings before the 

 fire, will be found very efi^eetive iu keeping them permanently in the way they 

 are placed, so tliat they may be effectually as well as nominally "set." 



A very good method of procuring many rare Lepidopterous, and indeed other 

 insects, is by shaking in the day-time any young trees which may admit of 

 such an effect, the result being to dislodge those which may be resting under 

 the leaves, from whence they either fly or drop down into the grass beneath 

 or at some little distance. In this way, some j'ears since, I procured a very 

 large numbers of splendid specimens of the Trypliana fimbria, then thought a 

 very rare and valuable insect, and in "The ISTaturalist," old series, volume ii, 

 pages 83-4-5, I gave an account of the whole mode of procedure and its results, 

 recording how, in plain prose, when divers entomologists adopted the plan, 

 which, as far as I know, was the invention of Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster, 

 the coppices resounded again with the "kicks of the sturdy entomologists" — 

 poetically speaking — "how bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke." 



Another means of relaxing specimens, though, iu my opinion, by no means 

 so effective as that hereinbefore described, is by means of bruised laurel leaves. 

 The following is the method adopted, as given in the "Zoologist," pages 

 1343-44: — 



Mr. J. W. Douglas, of 6, Grenville Terrace, Coburg Road, Kent Road, 

 London, writes, "A quantity of laurel leaves, (thirty or forty,) is much 

 bruised, put into a bag, and enclosed in an air-tight vessel; on the bag are 

 placed the insects wished to be relaxed, and they become flexible in a few 

 hours more or less, according to their size. The advantages of this system 

 are, that the insects may be left for any length of time without getting 

 mouldy, and that moths of a green colour or delicate texture may be operated 

 upon without injury, none of which were possible on the old plan. It is 

 somewhat singular that this relaxing effect should be produced by laurel leaves, 

 which contain a large amount of prussic acid, because if an insect be killed 

 by that poison, its membranes become intensely rigid." 



In the following article, Mr. Samuel Stevens, of 38, King Street, Convent 

 Garden, London, says in like manner, "Through the kindness of Mr. Dale, I 

 have been informed of a most excellent method of relaxing Lepidoptera and 

 other insects, and having adopted il lately, and finding it answer uncommonly 

 well, I think it will be a great benefit to entomologists to make the plan 

 generally known. I procure about a dozen shoots with the leaves of the 

 common laurel, the younger the better, put them into a coarse bag or cloth, 

 (a shot-bag I use,) bruise them well with a wooden mallet till the bag becomes 

 quite moist, then put it into a jar or other wide-mouthed glass vessel, and stick 



