l36 tHE ENTOMOtiOGISt. 



night the best. If any argument can be drawn from this, it would surely 

 be ill favour of the first emergence of the males, that they may be ready 

 to fly and to seek out the newly-emerged females. — Louis B. Prout ; 12, 

 Greenwood Road, Dalston, N.E., Feb. 18, 1893. 



Hybernia marginaria travelling by Train. — On getting into a 

 train at Earl's Court Station, on the 6th inst., I saw what I took to be a 

 patch of mud on the window of the carriage. I examined this more 

 closely before quitting the train at Turnham Green, and found the object to 

 be a fine male Hybernia marginaria. The probability is that the moth had 

 entered the carriage at Hounslow on the previous night, and had been 

 travelling between Acton Green and Earl's Court all day. I can easily 

 understand that, in this way, insects may be carried long distances into 

 districts in which they are not indigenous. — Alfred Sich ; Villa Amalinda, 

 Burlington Lane, Chiswick, March 10, 1893. 



Sugaring. — I have always found that sugar failed to attract Lepidoptera 

 on moonlight nights. Some collectors say that moths have freely visited 

 their sugar on such nights, but perhaps the bait on these occasions was spread 

 in woods where the moon's rays did not penetrate. — J as. Garrow; 3, 

 Wolseley Terrace, Birkbeck Road, Leytonstone, March 13, 1893. 



Clostera anachoreta. — In reply to Mr. Sydney Webb's question, I 

 can assure him that I teel as confident as one can be when relying on 

 memory after a lapse of thirty years, that I never tried to establish colonies 

 of C. anachoreta either at Deal or elsewhere. — H. G. Knaggs ; March, 

 1893. 



The Cyanide Reaction with Yellow Lepidoptera. — I was much, 

 interested in Mr. Coste's paper in the January number of the ' Entomo- 

 logist,' particularly as he had experimented on some species which are very 

 common here, viz., Catopsilia crocale, C. catilla, and several Terias. Owing, 

 I presume, to the climate, my killing bottles (cyanide of potassium) are 

 usually in a sloppy condition. I invariably kill Terias with the bottle, and 

 my collector does the same with everything, no matter what the size, but I 

 have never found that any of the yellow Pieridae ever turn red. Since 

 reading Mr. Coste's article, I have experimented with the plain cyanide of 

 potassium, unmixed with plaster of Paris, on all the common Pieridse found 

 here, but in no one case have they changed colour. Is this owing to the 

 climate ? which is damp ; temperature averages about 65° Fahr., elevation 

 5500 ft. I find that old specimens of Catopsilia (two to three years) go 

 green in the nervures of the wings. The District Medical Officer, who 

 often collects for me, usually kills with hydrocyanic acid, but, with the 

 exception of some of the green Noctuse and Geometrae, I have never found 

 any change of colour. Can any of your readers tell me why most of 

 the green Noctuse and Geometrae lose their colour, while Bombyces and 

 Pyralides keep theirs well? and is there any way to prevent them changing 

 colour? — P. E. Radley; Marguerita, Maturatta, Ceylon, February 13, 

 1893. 



Danais (Anosia) plexippus in New Zealand. — I have again the 

 pleasure of recording the appearance of this beautiful butterfly in New 

 Zealand. In the early part of this month I was staying at Mr. E. F* 

 Wright's fine property, the Winwood Orchard, Mt. Somers, and on the 10th, 



