Insects. 4503 



On the Application of Cyanide of Potassium to Killing Insects for 

 the Cabinet. By G. B. Buckton, Esq. 



Although the subject of the following paper was recently intro- 

 duced to the notice of the Natural History section of the British 

 Association, possibly a few words on the same point may not prove 

 unacceptable to the readers of the ' Zoologist.' 



Notwithstanding the able manner in which Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence have answered the objections made by some against the col- 

 lector, on the score of cruelty, a disinclination, to discuss the less 

 pleasing, but necessary operation of the entomologist, of depriving of 

 life those insects required for future examination, appears to have 

 been felt, since few writers, and they very slightly, touch upon 

 the subject. In the event of obtaining a large Lepidopterous insect 

 (we will suppose it a Death's-head) and confining it under a tumbler, 

 it is not perhaps obvious to all how the creature is best disposed of. 

 A decent and effective plan is a desideratum, and such I beg to pro- 

 pose in the following remarks. Previously, however, to describing a 

 simple apparatus which I have found to answer all requirements, and 

 which is applicable to nearly all cases, I will say a few words upon a 

 method that may be employed when circumstances prevent the 

 adoption of a better. 



All insects may be killed by exposing them to a moist atmosphere, 

 at a high temperature. This condition is best obtained by confining 

 them in what may be described as a hot water diving-bell. 



A bell of thin and well-annealed glass is furnished within and at 

 its summit with a strip of cork, upon which the insect may be pinned. 

 In broad daylight this may often be readily accomplished, for then 

 the Noctuidae and other night-flying moths are asleep on dark 

 palings and in other retired situations. 



With a little address, a sharp-pointed needle may be thrust through 

 the thorax of the insect to the support on which it stands, which 

 treatment strangely appears to affect it so slightly as scarcely 

 to cause it to lift its wings. Sometimes they will remain in this 

 constrained position quietly until the time arrives for the flight of that 

 particular species, at which period they become restless, and strive to 

 escape ; an immediate transfer of the insect and needle to the bell is, 

 however, 'desirable. The apparatus is then placed mouth downwards 

 in a basin of water, at or near its boiling point, when it will be found 

 that the heat of the expanded air within the instrument produces 



