﻿200 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



other groups, including the Halticidse, were purchased for the 

 National collection in the British Museum; and the Hispidse 

 subsequently became part of the entomological property of the 

 nation. After parting with these portions of his earlier 

 collections, Baly chiefly worked at the Galerucidse, and has left 

 a large collection of these insects in the possession of his family 

 at Warwick. — D. S. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES, CAPTURES, &c. 



The Chemistry of Insect Coloues. — I need hardly say that I am 

 quite delighted that Mr. Coste has taken up this subject, and I wish him 

 all success. If the facts prove in any cases contrary to my hypotheses, so 

 much the worse for the hypotheses ; and certainly I desire to get at nothing but 

 the truth. With regard to my statements quoted (Entom. 129), I believe it is 

 true that the white of several Lepidoptera may be turned yellow by a caustic 

 alkali ; at all events, Melanargia and Lycmna spp. But the best account of 

 this is the original one of Mr. Coverdale's (Entom. xvii. 204). I believe I 

 was quite accurate, also, about the Colias being turned red by cyanide, and 

 I beg Mr. Coste to experiment again with the cyanide in a closed heated 

 bottle. At a meeting of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, October 6th, 

 1885 (Ent. Amer. L, 159), Mr. Hy. Edwards exhibited a Colias eurydice 

 thus turned red. On a similar effect produced on Hymenoptera, see 

 R. H. Stretch, ' Canadian Entomologist,' 1886, pp. 55, 56. There is one 

 way in which Mr. Coste's difficulty about the effect of the damp cyanide 

 bottle on Colias may possibly receive an explanation, namely, that the red 

 colour was produced by an impurity in the cyanide, perhaps some 

 ammoniacal compound. Mr. Geo. Gore (" Electro-Metallurgy ") says that, 

 according to Messrs. Glassford and Napier, commercial white cyanide of 

 potassium generally contains about 35 per cent., and often as much as 

 50 per cent., of impurities, in the form of carbonate and sulphate of potash, 

 chloride of potassium, cyanate of potash, ferrocyanide of potassium, and 

 silica; and if the mixture of salts from which it is made is not dry, 

 ammoniacal compounds are also formed. Thorpe and Fresenius refer also 

 to potassium sulphide as an impurity. Mr. Coste, in regarding himself as 

 practically alone in his new line of research, has apparently overlooked the 

 excellent investigations of Mr. F. Gowland Hopkins, recorded in the 

 ' Chemical News,' August 2nd, 1889, p. 57 ; and also the researches of 

 A. Berge, ' Compt. rend. Soc. Entom. Belg.,' November, 1885.— T. D. A. 

 Cockerell ; West Cliff, Colorado, April 18, 1890. 



The Sallow Season of 1890. — Sallows were in full bloom as early 

 as the middle of February in the South-west of England (Entom. 136), 

 but at the time when florescence of the Salix was more general, the nightly 

 meteorological conditions were not altogether favourable. It was thought, 

 therefore, advisable to ascertain if the usual lepidopterous visitors to the 

 sign of " The Catkin " were less numerous than in other years ; and with 

 this object in view, some thirty entomologists, residing in various parts of 

 Britain, were invited to report their experience at "sallows" this season. 

 The majority of the gentlemen written to were courteous enough to reply ; 

 some, only to say that they had not attempted work at sallows this year ; 



