[215] NOTES ON CUCULLIA INTERMEDIA. 33 



of feeding and in their flight. Fig. 5 of Plate 8 represents the female 

 rnoth. 



The larva of CucuUia convexipennis Gr.-Rob. (conspicuously marked 

 with a dorsal stripe of brick-red on a ground of black, and with a 

 broad lateral stripe of yellow, broken transversely into lines resem 

 bling Roman letters), which I have taken during the months of 

 September and October, feeding first on the leaves and later on the 

 flowers of the golden rod (Solidago canadensis), also constructs a 

 cocoon of earth and silk ; but, unlike that of intermedia, it is placed 

 beneath the surface of the ground. Although not so firmly built 

 as that of its congenor, it is sufficiently compact to admit of the escape 

 of the imago through an opening made in the end, without destroying 

 its ellipsoidal form. 



We are indebted to Mr. E. L. Graef, of Brooklyn, L. I., for the able 

 translation of the following paper of Dr. Speyer, which may justly be 

 regarded as a model of entomological criticism. The thirty years of 

 close study which its author has given to the Lepidoptera of Europe, 

 have made him so thoroughly conversant with the European forms, 

 that he is now prepared to continue their investigation with unfailing 

 interest to himself, and greatly to the advancement of science, through 

 their comparison with representative and allied species from other 

 portions of the globe. The opportunity of very favorable comparison 

 with many of the New York species has been afforded him through 

 large collections reared from the larvae, or carefully made in the field, 

 and subsequently prepared in a superior manner by Mr. Meske, to 

 whom reference has been made in these pages less frequently than his 

 labors deserve, or my obligations to him demand.* 



*Mr. Meske s field collections are made with unusual care. A gauze net is used by 

 him, of so delicate a texture that the captured insect, in its efforts to escape, may 

 brush against its sides without the loss of any of its cilia. As quickly as possible it 

 is withdrawn from the net in a wide-mouthed bottle, and speedily quieted by a few 

 drops of chloroform, poured on some cotton contained in a glass tube passing through 

 the cork. When the insect is dead, or nearly so, it is carefully turned out on the 

 palm of the left hand, and in that position pinned, without taking it, as is usually 

 done, between the fingers. In this manner, even the strong-winged Hesperians may 

 be secured without the least injury to their thoracic garniture, or to their slightly 

 attached cilia in an absolutely perfect condition. 



I have found a lump of cyanide of potassa secured by a piece of gauze to the stopple 

 of a bottle (a French mustard jar, with its hollow, screw stopple, forms an excellent 

 collecting bottle), to be more convenient for use than chloroform, and nearly as prompt 

 in its anaesthetic effects. As the larger insects soon revive after being transferred to 

 the collecting box, unless left under the influence of the potassa for fifteen minutes 

 or more, the field collector will find it convenient to provide himself with a duplicate 

 bottle, for use while the occupied one is resting in an inverted position in his pocket. 

 An insect killed in this method remains in good condition for setting, wholly free from 

 the rigidity which often attends the use of chloroform. 



