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A Penny Weekly Magazine of Naturai History. 



No. 66. 



JANUARY '29th, 1881. 



Vol. 2. 



WINTER, 



AFTER an exceedingly mild Decem- 

 ber, the middle of January has 

 brought a storm of unprecedented 

 severity, and Entomologists have been 

 most completely snowed in. bo wild 

 was the season, that we heard of P. 

 pUosaria being taken, and Primroses 

 blooming in the North of England on 

 the first of January, but certainly they 

 will have been looked for in vain at 

 later dates. Those too, who were 

 reckoning on the Tcaniocampa being 

 out before we were well through Janu- 

 ary will have to put back their dates 

 by a few weeks, and while we are 

 writing it is quite uncertain, by the 

 appearance of things outside, how 

 long this severity may continue. Let 

 us content ourselves, as we cannot 

 help it, and see what we can do indoors, 

 to assist our work when the collecting- 

 season is reached. We may assume 

 that the end of the year saw all our 

 captures for 1880 carefully arranged 

 in our drawers or boxes, our duplicates 

 exchanged or given away, and the 

 contents of our return parcels, also 

 placed in order in our collection. That 

 being so, we are ready for 1881. But 



is there nothing we can do now that 

 will save time in the coming season ? 

 and first let us look over our collection 

 once more and see that all is in order. 

 Why, here are some drawers in which 

 the camphor has all evaporated. Do 

 not put oil' till the hot weather to re- 

 new it. It is quite true we are not 

 very much plagued with mites in 

 January, but they are not all dead, 

 and in any case "prevention is bettsr 

 than cure." If your cases are not fur- 

 nished with camphor cells, put a piece 

 of clean paper underneath the camphor 

 before you put it into your drawer. 

 Camphor seems to gather to itself all 

 the loose fragments, scales, &c, in the 

 case, and if you pin it on to the lining, 

 you will find it a very unsightly mark 

 left when it has evaporated. A piece 

 of paper below it prevents this, and 

 can be renewed whenever the camphor 

 needs renewing. If there is nothing 

 else to do at your collection, get out 

 your nets. You know you lost some 

 specimens last year through those 

 holes the thorn made. Get them 

 mended, or a new net made now, when 

 there is nothing else to do. Otherwise 

 you will be getting out with them again 

 in the same state, and how mortifying 



