290 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



larvae found at Pontresina, by Dr. Chapman, on honeysuckle, alder, 

 &c. Both Mr. Allen and myself have successfully reared it on haw- 

 thorn. Surely there is one slip in Mr. Harrison's note which needs 

 corecting. He speaks of purple as "very often" appearing "in the 

 larvaa of both 0. dilutata and O. autumnata." According to Guenee, 

 and to Mr. Allen's very wide experience (Ent. Rec. xvii. 339) and my 

 own not inconsiderable, the larva of 0. autumnata is never so adorned, 

 The interesting new phase of coloration observed by Mr. Harrison is, 

 as I understand him, something quite different. — Louis B. Prout ; 

 216, Bichmond Road, N.E., November 1st, 1907. 



Thecla pruni ab. — It may be of interest to record a curious 

 aberration of T. pruni bred from a larva which I obtained in Hunting- 

 donshire this year. The under side has, in place of the usual broken 

 bluish white line, a complete series of pale blue bands joining the black 

 spots on the inside of the orange band on the hind wings, and merging 

 into the brown colour on the fore wings. These bands fill the space 

 between the nervures with blue for about one-eighth of an inch on all 

 the wings. The upper side is normal, except that the general colour 

 is rather dingy for a bred specimen. — C. N. Hughes; Knightstone, 

 Cobham, Surrey. 



Macroglossa stellatarum flying on Shipboard from Gibraltar 

 to Suez. — I noticed a specimen of M. stellatarum flying around the 

 ship just before getting to Gibraltar on October 1st. In the evening 

 it settled in the dining saloon. I was going to secure it, when I 

 noticed it had a snipped wing and so left it alone. The next day I saw 

 the same specimen again, but what was my surprise after leaving 

 Marseilles, where we had stayed a day and a-half, still to see the same 

 insect, after which, with the assistance of Miss Fountaine, we kept a 

 good look-out for it. Next we called at Naples and Port Said, but it 

 was still with us. However, on the night of October 12th, after 

 passing through the Suez Canal, Miss Fountaine informed me that it 

 had met with an untimely death at the hands, or rather feet, of one 

 of the stewards, after which we saw no more M. stellatarum up to the 

 time of my leaving the boat at Aden. — W. Feather ; care of British 

 Somaliland Fibre and Development Company, Berbera, Somaliland, 

 Africa. 



To prevent Mould in Relaxing-boxes. — One day this summer, a 

 bottle in which I kept oxalic acid having got shaken in travelling, I 

 stood it in the somewhat mouldy lid of a relaxing-box while I killed 

 some insects. 1 noticed next day that the mould had been removed 

 by the oxalic incrustation on the bottle. Since then I have put a 

 little oxalic into the silver sand into which I dump my killed insects 

 till I have leisure to set them, so far as I know, with none but good 

 results. I do not see that the oxalic, thus used, can damage the pins, 

 since pricking the insect with it apparently has no such effect. Perhaps 

 some entomologist with a knowledge of chemistry will tell us ; the 

 matter would seem to be of some interest, for a good method of pre- 

 venting mould does not appear to be generally known. — H. V. Plum ; 

 Lower School, The College, Epsom, November 14th, 1907. 



