APHOMISTMATA ENTOMOLOGICA. 183 



tlie insects ou the top of the bag, which must be tied over or secured in some 

 way, so that it be made perfectly air-tight. Twenty-tour hours are generally 

 sufficient to relax most insects, but one great advantage is, that if they remain 

 a week or ten days in the laurel they are not the least injui'ed, 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 wiU be found to have 

 a great many advantages over the old plan of damp sand. I was in hope, 

 from experiments that I made on two or thi'ee green species, that the colours 

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

 papilionarms, Hemithea vernaria, and Hemithea cythisaria are considerably 

 changed by it. Mr. Dale informs me tliat it answers equally well with the 

 other orders: — he having relaxed nearly the whole of his Dragon-ilies, and it 

 is much used at Bristol for the Htjmenoptera." 



PosTscfiiPT. — 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. Tlie other vial should be made verj- 

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

 the best; pure alcohol injures the colours." " Quills cut ofl' 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 

 Naturalist," old series, volume iii., page 159. — "Substitute foe Cobk Llxing 

 IN Entomological CiBiNETS. — 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 cheaijer, 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 bee's-wax and one third of the best resin; 

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

 harm, and -wiU 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 through 

 any insects you have "netted," after they have been perfectly killed, may be 

 carried either in the pocket-box or in a small thin pincushion, attached to a 

 "guard." Two of these, made of velvet, and exactlj* resembling butterflies, 

 have been presented to me by Br. TTciny Moss, of Appleby ; I give a figure 

 of one. 



