56 



the trouble arises. If we could insure every fraction of the 

 pin being covered with the varnish, I think we should have 

 no further trouble with verdigris." 



Mr. Montgomery remarked that benzine was a substance 

 which seemed to kill this product, while Mr. Kaye said that 

 no doubt the best cleanser of insects thus attacked was 

 petrol. It was generally considered that the black pins were 

 at least as liable to originate verdigris as the white ones. 

 Probably there was a chemical action first between the fatty 

 acids of the insect's body and the lacquer of the pin, which 

 was often more or less imperfectly deposited and of extreme 

 thinness. This having weakened the attachment of the 

 lacquer to the pin, the main substance, a compound con- 

 taining copper, was exposed to the action of the fatty acids, 

 and verdigris was the visible result. Mr. Goulton was in 

 the habit of " blacking " his own pins by subjecting them 

 to the action of sulphate of ammonia for a time. Pins 

 treated in this way, if carefully done, he had found to keep 

 insects perfectly free from this danger. It was necessary to 

 perform this operation of " blacking " away from the house, 

 as the smell was very pungent. Mr. South had used this 

 method for years, and said that insects in his collection set 

 on pins so prepared were absolutely free from verdigris. 

 He suggested that one provocative of the trouble was the 

 too great sloping of the pin, so that it went through a por- 

 tion of the abdomen as well as the thorax. The substance 

 or contents of the abdomen were possibly more conducive to 

 attacks on the pin than the contents of the thorax. 



Mr. Hy. J. Turner exhibited a number of Lepidoptera 

 sent to him from Western Australia, including the sexually 

 dimorphic Hetcronympha mcrope, a series of the moth Syncmon 

 parthenoidcs, which, from its knobbed antenna: and other 

 characters, has frequently been considered to belong to the 

 Rhopalocera, several Hdevonympha plialcrope, and a short 

 series of the golden Tinea clathrata. They were all taken 

 near the Swan River in November and December 1906. 



Mr. Rayward read a short paper entitled " Notes on the 

 Larvae of Polyommatus icarus and their connection with Ants " 

 (see " Ent. Record," 1907, p. 108, etc.). 



APRIL 25th, 1907. 



Mr. Main exhibited some small scorpions (Scorpio curopoeus), 

 the larva of a species of Mantis, and an example of the large 



