260 TfiE ENTOMOLOGIST . 



covering the whole of the discal cell, and sharply bounded thereby, 

 The croceus was taken on the South Downs near Ditchling, and the 

 exclamationis were both captured at sugar in Mr, Wood's garden in 

 Ditchling village.— Stanley N. A. Jacobs ; 5, Exbury Eoad, Catford, 

 S.E. 



Aricia medon ab. albiannulata, HarR. — On August 14th this 

 year I was so fortunate as to capture a well-marked male specimen 

 of this form at Dartford, Kent. It is remarkable also in that the 

 anterior end of the marginal series of red spots on the upper side of 

 the fore wing is conspicuously powdered with white. — C. H. Hards ; 

 40, Brewery Eoad, Plumstead, S.E. 18. 



Eetarded Emergence op Mesoleuca albicillata. — To-day, 

 September 26th, on looking into my pupa cage I was surprised to see 

 a newly emerged $ specimen of the above insect. It had only just 

 completed the drying of its wings. The other portion of the brood, 

 some twenty-five, had emerged normally in early June. South 

 (Moths of the British Isles) mentions the occasional appearance of 

 M. albicillata in the autumn. Possibly all such examples might be 

 due to similar retarded emergence, and if this sort of thing happens 

 with one species, why not with others that are perhaps regarded as 

 partially dotible-broo&ed ? — Erank Littlewood ; 22, Highgate, 

 Kendal, September 26th, 1922. 



Killing with Cyanide. — I do not think that it is known— at any 

 rate I have never seen the fact referred to in any book or journal I 

 have ever read — that a butterfly or moth killed in the cyanide bottle 

 (half an hour in a strong bottle will ensure death, although no harm 

 accrues if left in longer) and then simply pinned or laid loose in a 

 tin box (an empty tobacco tin will do) quite dry and without any 

 relaxing agent whatever, will, of its own accord, in the space of about 

 forty-eight hours (for an insect of average size, like Pieris rapae) 

 return to its original natural flexible condition. A shorter period 

 (say twenty-four hours) will suffice for small insects, whilst an extra 

 day or even two days may be necessary for the largest moths. The 

 tin may be kept in the ordinary sitting-room temperature. The same 

 thing happens, of course, if the specimens are left in the killing bottle 

 for an equal period of time, but it is only this season that I discovered 

 that the happy result might be obtained in the above more convenient 

 way, without the necessity of encumbering oneself with a number of 

 reserve killing bottles. Cyanide of potassium is one of the best all- 

 round killing methods, almost its only draWback being the " rigor " 

 that it causes, and which renders immediate setting impossible. The 

 above hint may enable even a busy collector to use cyanide more 

 freely, as it is an easy matter to put each day's killing into a separate 

 resting-tin and to affix the date. If, when the insects have arrived 

 at the proper setting condition, it is not convenient to set them, I 

 use a laurel leaf tin, which is admirable for keeping them relaxed, 

 though apparently not at all necessary for bringing them to that 

 state in the first instance. In any case, the shorter time any speci- 

 men is exposed to cyanide or laurel, or to any other killing or 

 relaxing agent, the less likely are its colours to be injured. — Frank 

 Littlewood ; 22, Highgate, Kendal, August 23rd, 1922. 



