31B 



THE NAT0TIALIST. 



Mould on Lepidoptera. — In 'So. 41, 

 page 255, headed Notes and Queries, 

 I find "Mould in Lepidoptera." In 

 answer to Mr. F. Wilkinson, I beg to in- 

 form him, through the pages of the 

 Naturalist, that in the year 1861 I ex- 

 hibited at thelufirmary Gardens a pentagon 

 or figure of five sides, 18 inches high, which 

 revolves on an upright axis. The outer 

 base is 21 4 inches diameter, the inner 19| 

 inches, turned in a lathe ; each side is 7^ 

 inches at the bottom, 5 1 inches at the top, 

 tapering up to the before mentioned height, 

 with glass fronts. Each of these sides I 

 filled with moths and butterflies. At the 

 top of this again I have another glass shade 

 8 1 inches diameter, and 10 inches high ; un- 

 der this I have a triangular figure of three 

 sides, this I have filled with Coleoptera, Ne- 

 uroptera, Hymenoptera, and other insects. 

 The three days of the exhibition were very 

 wet, for the rain came through the covered 

 canvass, and the pentagon and the whole 

 of the insects were quite damp and moist. 

 After I got them home I dried them by the 

 fire, and carried them up stairs to their 

 proper place. Then in the year 1862 I took 

 every moth, &c., out at various times, and 

 with a camel hair pencil I run down on the 

 underside of the body, not the wings, of 

 each and every moth and butterfly, a 

 pencil dipped in spirits of wine, in which 

 I had dissolved some bichloride of mercury 

 {corrosive siiblimate) previous to using ; 

 since then I have not seen any mould or 

 any parasitical insect about them, and they 

 are all and each of them in good preserva- 

 tion and colour, and exposed to the light 

 on a north side, and from the sun's rays. — 

 Joseph Blackburn, 42, St. Mary's-street, 

 Mabgate, Leeds, Feb. 20th, 1866. 



EarU'igs. — In a communication to the 

 Entomological Society, by Mr. S. Stone, 



of Brighthampton, in remarking on the 

 scarcity of wasp nests last year, he says : — 

 ' ' That earwigs (which swarm to an extent 

 I never before witnessed), wood-lice, and 

 ants have been, in some degree, instru- 

 mental in causing the destruction of nests, 

 especially during the earlier periods of 

 their formation, I have had abundant 

 opportunities of proving." And Pro- 

 fessor estwood said, ' ' He had no doubt 

 that earwigs, which were this year (1865) 

 unprecedently numerous, were equally in- 

 jurious to bees, penatrating the hives and 

 consuming the larvae." I have for some 

 years paid great attention to earwigs, and 

 I have bred many colonies, and I vouch for 

 the accuracy of their being carnivorous, 

 for when in confinement they will eat flies, 

 and attack even the spider. At large their 

 diet is very varied ; nothing seems to come 

 amiss. They are accused by bee-keepers of 

 robbing the hives of the "bee-bread," there- 

 by causing the death of the young brood ; 

 aud some old bee-keepers even assert, that 

 they do, as the Professor thinks, consume 

 the larvai. I have frequently found them 

 buried in the petals of a double hollyhock, 

 where they wait the arrival of Hymenopter- 

 ous insects in search of food, when they fasten 

 on the poor insects, whichbeing entangled in 

 the leaves of the flower, can make no de- 

 fence, and thus fall an easy prey to their 

 wily assailants. In their relations to one 

 another, they are very kind, and the 

 parents sc^m to be very anxious for the 

 safety of their young. Unless forcibly 

 broken up, the parents and their brood go 

 together the whole winter, and may readily 

 be found in the half of a bean, if a stfilk is 

 left standing in the garden. I account for 

 the great number last year from the fact of 

 the dryness of the season, which gave the 

 young brood a chance of attaining a good 

 size, and of casting their first coats. In 

 wet weather, many of them perish ; 

 indeed few attain the period at Avhich they 

 cast their first coats. — John Kanson, York. 



