DAMP COLLECTING-BOXES AND LAUREL-JARS SUPERSEDED. 189 



Firstly, Aurivillius quotes a very old description of the North 

 American insect, which Linne received from Kalm, from an old 

 MS., with a reference to Catesby. But there is no evidence that 

 the name plexippus was affixed to it ; and Linne's own words 

 seem to imply that he considered his Chinese specimen the type, 

 especially keeping in view the line appended to the original 

 description comparing the butterfly to chrysijypus. But can 

 we set aside the American locality, and the reference to books 

 in which American species are described or figured ? And 

 what is the species mentioned in these old books which Linne 

 quotes ? 



Some of Linne's references are wrong, to begin with. To 

 take Petiver first : we find, in Petiver's * Museum,' p. 52, n. 527, 

 a butterfly from Carolina briefly described, which he figured 

 afterwards in his * Gazophyllacium,' pi. 15, fig. 9. If we admit 

 the claims of American butterflies, this should be the typical 

 figure ; but it represents Limenitis archippus, Cramer ! Sloane, 

 of course, figures Anosia jamaicensis, Bates ; and it is not till we 

 come to the third quotation (Catesby), which Linne afterwards 

 quoted with doubt, that we meet with the common North 

 American Anosia menippe^ Hiibner. Lastly, Kay's description 

 belongs rather to A. jamaicensis (which he actually called the 

 butterfly), than to any other species ; though he also quotes 

 Petiver's notice of a butterfly from Carolina, which, as we have 

 seen, was Limenitis archippus. 



Under these circumstances, I am still of opinion that it is 

 better to regard the eastern Danaus, figured by Cramer as 

 Papilio genutia, as the true Papilio plexippus, of Linne, on the 

 strength of his comparing it with D. chrysippus ; and having 

 regard to Clerck's figure, and the ostensible types ; and to call 

 the common American species, now becoming naturalised among 

 us, by the name of Anosia menippe, Hiibner. 



DAMP COLLECTING -BOXES AND LAUEEL-JARS 



SUPERSEDED. 



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



In your issue for October, 1894 (Entom. xxvii. 294), Mr. 

 Philip de la Garde drew attention to the use of naphthalin as a 

 means of keeping freshly-caught insects relaxed without damp, 

 even when collecting under a tropical sun. This statement was 

 referred to (E.M.M. xxxi. 21) in January, 1895, in a foot-note to 

 my description of Mr. Clark's rapid and wonderful method of 

 relaxing dried specimens by the application of wood-naphtha to 

 their thoraces. It has been a matter of surprise to me that none 

 of your readers would seem to have spotted the paragraph in 



