THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
(39 
tion, as I before said, wherever the solu- 
tion has touched it turns white, there- 
fore that manner of application would 
totally spoil them : it is quite impossible, 
or I have found it so, to erase it, after it 
is once on, without injuring the speci- 
mens. I have found rectified spirits of 
naphtha very good, but then it has a very 
unpleasant smell ; so I have fallen back 
to the old method of keeping a constant 
supply of camphor in each drawer, 
which, if renewed about once in two 
months, is certainly the best thing I, at 
present, know of. — J. H. Tilly, 8, Ber- 
nard. Street , Regent's Park; May 11, 
1857. 
On the principle of doing to others as 
I have often wished to be done unto, I 
answer the question put by Mr. Linnell, 
premising that I am giving the result of 
my experience gained from others, whose 
names 1 will intercalate with my remarks. 
In my opinion the best way 10 kill the 
Macro-Lepidoptera is ammonia (Crewe) 
and the Micro-Lepidoptera bruised laurel- 
leaves (Stainton). I will confine my re- 
marks now to the Macro-Lepidoptera : 
take a jam-pot, and grind the edges so 
as to allow a piece of heavy glass to cover 
the top evenly ; then drop a few drops of 
strong, pure liquid ammonia on to a piece 
of sponge and put it into the pot, and 
follow with the insect at once: and here 
great caution is requisite. The ammonia 
will wet the sponge, and when it evapo- 
rates will leave it wet, water remaining ; 
bred insects, too, will purge directly they 
feel the ammonia, sometimes after they 
have been out twenty-four hours: now if 
any of this excrement touches the wings 
of your insect, squash he goes at once: 
therefore take care and have another bit 
of sponge in your hand, and remove the 
excrement before mischief is done, and 
as to the water you must take care it is all 
in the sponge. I have, as well as a jam- 
pot, a tin case with a perforated bottom, 
but with practice I think the jam-pot will 
be preferred. All insects, of whatever 
size, soon become motionless in ammonia ; 
they will, however, revive if taken out at 
once : half-an-hour in the jam-pot, how- 
ever, will prevent the revival of the 
strongest moth, and they may remain 
there without injury twenty-four or even 
forty-eight hours, perfectly relaxed, and 
fit for setting any time during that period. 
Now as to the moths injured in colour 
by this method, they are very few: Mr. 
Crewe, who has used this plan for years, 
speaks only of Ilylophila Prasinana, 
Hoporina Croceago and Chcerocampa El- 
penor. I should not, however, trust into 
it any of the delicate greens, or Chcero- 
campa Porcellus or Deilephila Galii. It 
does not injure the other yellows in the 
least, and from my own experience last 
year I know the inimitable and beautiful 
purple of Apatura his comes out of it 
unscathed. As to insects taken in the 
woods and fields, according to my expe- 
rience, the best plan is to box them alive, 
and they will, in a great majority of in- 
stances, keep quiet until they get home ; 
if they will not, depend upon it the old- 
fashioned plan of nipping the thorax 
dexterously is the best. Some collectors 
drop chloroform into their boxes : I do 
not like this, for two reasons ; imprimis , 
the said chloroform evaporates, and does 
not kill or stupify, and, if it does, a dead 
insect shaken about in a box is almost as 
bad as the wildest Viminalis or Castren- 
sis ; secundis, chloroform stiffens an insect 
very quickly, and you will take off the 
bloom in setting. Mr. Greene has in- 
vented a tin case, with a false perforated 
bottom, which will go into his trousers 
pocket : the false bottom covers bruised 
laurel-leaves, and he takes his insects in 
this case, and, when stupified, pins them. 
“ Chacun a, son gout.” I have a strong 
objection to pin any moth when collecting, 
and if I do it at all I like the old-fashioned 
pinch, which was thought quite enough 
for Haworth and Linnaeus, although it 
does not altogether satisfy modern ento- 
mological dillettanteism : it may be used 
