1899] 41 



ENTOMO LOGICA L NEWS. 



[TheC'onductorsof Entomological News solicit anil will thankfullyreceive 

 items of news likely to interest its readers from any source. The authors name 

 will be given in each ca.«e, for the information of cataloguers and bibliograph- 

 ers.] 



To Contribators.— All contributions will be considered and passed upon at 

 our earliest convenience, and, as far as may be, will be published according to 

 tlate of reception. Entomological Xew.s has reached a circulation, both in 

 numbers and circumference, as to make It neeessarv to put ''copv" into the 

 hands of the printer for each number three weeks before date of issue. This 

 should be remembered in sending special or important matter for a certain 

 issue. Twenty-live "extras," without change in form, will be given free, when 

 they are wanted; and this should Ije so stated on the M.S., along with the num- 

 *)er desired. The receipt of all papers will l>e acknowledged.— Ed. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Februaky, 1899. 



Some time ago au appeal for assistance to advance the in- 

 terests of entomology- was asked from a very wealthy woman 

 in this city, and snch aSvSistanee declined, on the gronnd that 

 *'she had never wavered fi'om a dislike to amateur collec- 

 tions of insects immolated on pins and whose long suffering 

 no one could realize." Xow this all raises the question as to 

 whether the lady is correct in her ideas on the subject. E"en 

 if entomologists did immolate live insects on pins, it is piobable 

 that they would not suffer pain, but as a matter of fact they 

 are killed before being pinned, as otherwise they would be 

 ruined as specimens. While insects do have sensory nerves, 

 they are probably by no means as well developed as the motor 

 nerves, which are essential in such active creatures. In the 

 higher orders of animals and those which bring forth few 

 young, pain is necessary to protect life, and the loss of this 

 protection in insects is compensated for by fecundity. There 

 are also direct experiments to prove that insects do not suffer 

 pain. It is said that a dragon-fly will eat from the end of its 

 abdomen as far as it may be fed to it . Also if the same insect be 

 deprived of its abdomen and supplied with one of wax of the 

 same size -and weight, the insect will go about its business and 

 pursue mosquitos for food as though its anatomy had not been 

 abbreviated. The nocturnal moths are also very tolerant of 

 pins thrust through them in day time, but when night comes 

 they endeavor to depart, pin, tree and all, if pinned to the 

 latter. The writer has been accusetV of cruelty by lady friends 

 in starving to death the large bombycid moths, which by the 

 way, have no mouth parts and only feed in the larvae condition. 

 When our lady friends cease to wear sealskin coats, the plum- 

 age of beautiful birds and have the tails of their horses less 

 like effete dust brushes, we will be willing to hear from them 

 on the subject of cruelty to insects. 



