102 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
sun. Eggs can be sent by post very con- 
veniently, so that to distribute a thousand 
(if you have them) is an easy task: you 
thus communicate a better knowledge of 
the insect to a friend than in any other 
way. It is certainly very pleasant to re- 
ceive insects in pupae ; but then pupae 
should not travel for their health. In- 
deed pupa-digging, though useful us a 
subsidiary resource, appears to labour 
under this serious objection, that pupae 
should never be moved, or handled, or 
seen, if possible; and that, besides those 
destroyed by being cut or bruised in the 
operation, many more perish from the 
mere removal. If collectors, when they 
become possessed of a worn female, would 
suffer her to lay her eggs before con- 
demning her to the chloroform, much 
benefit might be expected to our Science. 
Should any one be inclined to furnish me 
with eggs or larva) of the following I 
should feel happy to make any return in 
my power: — Stauropus Fagi, Gastro- 
pac/ta ilicifolia , Nnlodonta chaonia, Pla- 
typleryx hamula. — Rev. B. Smith, Mar- 
low ; June 9. 
Don’t kill the Egg-layer. — I see an an- 
nouncement in your publication of to-day 
that your Haggerstone correspondent has 
taken a pair of N. Carmelita (in copula , 
I suppose), and that the female has laid 
about “ thirty eggs.” Often, when reading 
in the ‘Intelligencer’ or ‘Zoologist’ of 
the capture of pairs, or females only, of 
the rarer moths, 1 have regretted to see 
the delighted possessor announce that 
his capture had presented him with a 
score, thirty or fifty eggs, as the case 
might be. Now, in the instance of your 
Haggerstone correspondent, there has 
probably been a loss to ihe hungry ento- 
mological world of about 150 eggs of 
Carmelita. I cannot understand why a 
female moth, who had not already nearly 
exhausted herself, should contribute so 
sparingly, except that the possessor, es- 
teeming “ a bird in the hand worth two 
in the bush,” prematurely killed her. 
Your juvenile readers should be warned 
never to kill a female moth from which 
they are desirous to procure eggs, but 
allow her to continue depositing until 
she dies ; they will thus secure every egg 
she has to bestow', and depend, so long 
as she continues at all lively, she has not 
entirely completed the great object of her 
existence. Moths generally lay their 
eggs at night. The nuptial embrace 
takes place in the evening or during the 
night, and continues until the following 
evening; immediately on the separation 
the work of depositing commences, and 
is continued, as a rule, during three or 
four nights. The eight or ten N. ziczacs 
which supplied me with eggs lately, each 
deposited from seventy to eighty the first 
night, fifty to sixty the second, forty or 
fifty the third, and sometimes a few on 
the fourth : had I killed them after the 
first night, as I did in former years, 1 
should have lost above half the eggs, and 
my correspondents a part of their supply. 
I can give another instance, now in pro- 
cess: on Tuesday last 1 took a pair 
of Orgyia Pudibuncla in copula; that 
evening the female laid 140 eggs, on 
Wednesday night 90, on Thursday 00, 
and last night about a score, and, from 
her appearance, I doubt not she will con- 
tribute a further score to-night; thus, by 
giving ample time, I secure upwards of 
300 eggs for the purpose of study, and 
also (which is equal pleasure to me) a 
supply for my entomological friends who 
wish to rear specimens or to examine the 
handsome larva of this insect. 1 trouble 
you with these remarks for the benefit 
more particularly of incipients. — Geokoe 
Gascoyne, Newark; June 13. 
COLEOPTEJBA. 
Hydrous piceus wanted. — 1 have dupli- 
cate specimens of Dyliscus marginalis 
and Colymbetes, which 1 shall be happy 
to exchange for specimens of II. piceus. 
— S. II. Stocks, FittwiUiam Street , 
Huddersfield ; June 17. 
