Insects. 2245 



Killing Insects by Heat. — As Mr. Duff's method may not be entirely practicable 

 to all entomologists, from the want of suitable apparatus, permit me to offer the plan 

 I follow, which is most simple. It is this : — Having returned from collecting, I lay 

 aside all my pill-boxes containing specimens of Micro-Lepidoptera until morning, if 

 inconvenient to kill them the same night. During the summer season, I place a small 

 tin stand (a tripod, the legs of wire or small iron) over a lighted candle, and place my 

 pill-boxes upon the stand. A second or two will cause life to be extinct. I then turn 

 out the insects upon a sheet of white paper, and either set them at once or pin them 

 and relax them at leisure. There is no necessity whatever to pin the insects before 

 killing them. My other method of killing specimens taken at sugar, is, next morning 

 to turn them out of the boxes upon a dark piece of paper, pin them, and immediately 

 prick them in the throat with a fine-pointed steel pen dipped in oxalic acid dissolved 

 in water: this acid does not act upon the pin or injure the insect. — J. Johnson; 27, 

 Kensington Square, September 8, 1848. 



Nest of Honey-bees in a blank Window. — Among my manuscript notes on Natural 

 History in 1842 I find the following : " September 6, 1842. Adwick Hall, near Don- 

 caster. Took bees' nest, formed in a blank window in one of the attic bed-rooms. 

 Weight of comb and honey 160 lbs." A swarm of bees had been noticed some years 

 previous to have taken up their quarters within the casement of this window ; but as 

 it was at a considerable height from the ground, they were left unmolested. The 

 swarms yearly thrown off appropriated other compartments in the same old mullioned 

 window, and at each new emigration the humming became more and more audible 

 within the room, which was separated from the scene of their labours by a very narrow 

 partition. The nest was taken from within ; and it required a considerable removal 

 of laths and mortar to enable the captor to secure the combs, which were literally tier 

 above tier to the height of some feet. — Peter Inchbald ; Storthes Hall, Huddersfield, 

 September 5, 1848. 



Singular Monstrosity in the Antenna of Lamia textor. — A specimen of Lamia textor 

 was captured near Bristol, by Mr. F. V. Jacques of that city, having the basal joint 

 of the left antenna much enlarged, and exhibiting a socket whence one or more joints 

 had been broken. The insect was captured on the 18th of July, 1848. — Frederick 

 Smith; Newing ton, August, 1848. 



Note on the Capture of Lamia textor. — I have been extremely fortunate in cap- 

 turing eleven specimens of this rare and noble insect. I took them late in the evening 

 in a willow-bed in this neighbourhood, some feeding on the young shoots and others 

 crawling up. I am inclined to think it is a nocturnal species, as I have often been in 

 the same locality in the day-time, and earlier in the evening, but never saw a speci- 

 men before. I kept some of them alive for several days, and in confinement one or 

 two of them fed by day as well as in the evening : they eat the leaves and bark of the 

 young branches, and require to be kept in large or strong boxes, or they will eat their 

 way out : I had one eat its way through a chip box, and another through a pill-box, 

 but I had taken the precaution of enclosing those boxes in a larger one, or I should 

 have lost both specimens. The following are the dates of the captures : — August 7, 

 four specimens ; August 8, one specimen; August 12, three specimens; August 17, 

 two specimens; August 19, one specimen. — Stephen Barton ; Upper Maudlin Street, 

 Bristol, August 23, 1848. 



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