CLOSTERA ANACHORETA, 111 



into proper position, and the under icings set so that they do not come in 

 contact ivith it. I have said that I know of no preventive for grease in the 

 thorax. Is there a cure? Well, its ill effects may be much mitigated, 

 and this by sinliing the whole insect in benzole. To do this a stage of 

 pith, or fungus, which must be weighted with lead on the under side, must 

 be used. Cork is useless, and for this reason : — the insects to be soaked 

 must be squeezed down into the stage till the wings rest upon the surface, 

 otherwise it will be found that the cilia are inextricably matted ; and cork 

 is too hard to allow of this being done. Sometimes it will be found 

 necessary to repeat the process over and over again; they must then be 

 dried and covered with powdered French chalk. When removed, perhaps 

 they may be presentable ; but the glory of a thorax such as that of 

 Smerinthus ocellatus or Eugonia alniaria (tiliaria), alas! it has departed, 

 and it will take a very clever person to restore it again. It has often struck 

 me that the freaks of grease are rather unintelligible. Why is it that the 

 typical female of Colias edusa seldom greases, and the var. helice nearly 

 always does ; and my experience is based on many dozens of the variety, 

 and scores of the type ? Why, in some species, is it always the male, in 

 others the female, that gets greasy ? Some years ago a physician, who was 

 also an entomologist, thus wrote to me: — "I do not regard it (grease) as a 

 putrefactive change, but in its nature rather the opposite, though it spoils 

 the look of specimens, and more analogous to a peculiar fatty production 

 which takes place in dead human and other bodies, after they have been 

 interred some time. The whole body often becomes changed into this 

 peculiar solid, greasy matter, which is very imperishable." — Joseph 

 Anderson, Jun., Chichester. 



CLOSTERA ANACHORETA. 

 By H. G. Knaggs, M.D., F.L.S. 



I MUST again apologise for trespassing on your valuable space. 

 It will now be my endeavour to prove, far more conclusively than 

 I have yet done, that C. anachoreta was taken by Mr. Sidney 

 Cooper some time before my Folkestone captures were made. 



In my former communication I quoted Mr. Newman's state- 

 ment, Zool. 7681, as follows : — 



" This beautiful larva was first found by my friend Mr. Sidney 

 Cooper, feeding, as he believes, on Salix caprcea (sallow), afterwards 

 by Dr. Knaggs, &c." 



Mr. Greene now asks what that has to do with his argument ? 

 My answer is Everything. 



He next asks, " Further, what are we to gather from the words 

 in small capitals ? Is it that Mr. Cooper, who ' believes ' that his 

 larva was feeding on sallow, was the first discoverer of the insect, 

 and not Dr. Knaggs ?" Certainly, what other possible meaning 

 can the words convey ? 



Mr. Greene only partially quotes my sentence, in which I gave 

 reasons for omitting a certain passage which I considered irrelevant 



