Insects. 



8467 



the antenna are carefully touched with a camel's-hair pencil dipped in a weak solution 

 of corrosive sublimate (bichloride of mercury) tbey are for ever proof against mites 

 and mould." Upon my asking for a little further information Mr. Doubleday very 

 obligingly supplied me with the following. " You can easily try the experiment with 

 regard to camphor. Take any moth which is at all liable to turn greasy, and suspend 

 it by a thread attached to the cork of a bottle containing camphor. After letting the 

 moth down into the bottle put the cork in tightly, and in a few days you will find the 

 grease will liquefy and spread all over the insect. I believe 4 that when insects are care- 

 fully touched with a weak solution of corrosive sublimate in pure alcohol they will 

 never mould or be destroyed with mites; I mean those parts to which the sublimate 

 has been applied; but if the thorax and abdomen are poisoned mites will rery rarely 

 indeed attack the wings, and they never become mouldy. A small piece of sublimate, 

 about the size of a hemp seed, is sufficient for an ounce of alcohol. It should never 

 be strong enough to give visible crystals on a non-absorbing substance (black)— a piece 

 of blackened ivory for instance — when it it is wetted with the solution and allowed to 

 evaporate. The best method of applying it is to take a small camel's-hair pencil and 

 dip it in the solution, pass it along the antenna?, and then apply it to the under side 

 of the thorax and abdomen. It will penetrate these parts in a second or two, and then 

 the alcohol evaporates, leaving the sublimate in the insect." I am sure your readers 

 will feel obliged for these valuable and suggestive remarks. — Joseph Greene ; Cubley 

 Rectory, Doveridge, Derby. 



Habits of various Lepidoplera. — Arctia Mendica always came out of pupa between 

 10 a.m. and p.m., generally in the afternoon. Odontopera bidentata always in the 

 evening dusk, between 7 and 10 p. m. : as soon as the wings are expanded the insect 

 retreats from the top of the box and fixes itself on one side of it close to the earth, 

 with the head downwards and the tail and hinder extremity of the wings hanging 

 forwards, like a well-hung picture. My Melanthia albicillata almost always came out 

 of pupa either between 6 and 8 a.m. or between 6 and 8 p. m. — F. Beauchamp. 



Spring Moths. — On the 15th of March, 1862, the Taeniocampas were plentiful on 

 sallows; T. gothica early in the evening; T. stabilis not showing until T. gothica had 

 nearly disappeared. Hy hernia rupicapraria was rather common, and H. progemmaria 

 abundant, sitting on the hedges with its wings at an angle of 45° from the twig and 

 90° from each other. Anticlea badiata, on the contrary (of which I took five males), 

 sets up its wings after the manner of a butterfly ; it is much wilder than H. progem- 

 maria ; when at rest, as in the day-time, its tail is raised like that of Pyralis farinalis: 

 on the 19th of April I took a female, which laid me about one hundred yellowish 

 white eggs, the larvae from which fed up well on a garden rose, of which they seemed 

 to prefer the flower-buds to the leaves: they are uncomfortable, round-beaded, sawfly- 

 looking creatures, — semi-transparent, too, so that when feeding on roses the anterior 

 portion of the body is tinged with purple. — Id. 



The late J. F. Stephens Specimens of Lyccena Doryhs. — Since the publication of 

 my remarks upon this species (Zool. 8402), I have examined the specimens contained 

 in the cabinet of the late J. F. Stephens which were considered by him as identical 

 with the Hyacinthus of Lewin, and given in the Museum 'Catalogue' as Adonis, 

 var. a. They are certainly not Lewin's species, but merely ordinary specimens of 

 Adonis ; and the same may be said of the specimens marked " Ceronus, Hub." which 

 is a variety, in which the female is of nearly as brilliant a blue as the male. This 



