20 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
well. Last autumn, — being deter- 
mined to make assurance doubly sure, 
I put a larger quantity than usual 
into the drawers, and into one or two 
of them, — owing to the bottle slipping 
from my fingers, — rather more than I 
intended, and a pretty mess has been 
the result. The Cajeput oil, in 
evaporating, settled on the bodies and 
wings of more than half the specimens 
throughout my collection, causing 
them to become more or less saturated 
with grease. 
As soon as I perceived the extent 
of my calamity, I set to work man- 
fully to clean the greasy specimens, 
using, at first, benzole and calcined 
magnesia. Although this plan an- 
swered very well with several speci- 
mens, there are a great many, — un- 
fortunately among the rarer species, 
which were only { made worse : the 
grease wasn’t all dissolved by the ben- 
zole, and some of it remained, and 
made a paste "with the magnesia, 
either causing the whole insect to look 
dusty like a miller, or else, so obstina- 
tely resisting the camel’s hair brush 
used to remove it, that, in the struggle 
antennae, legs and wings were fractur- 
ed ; — most grievous to behold. This 
result made me the more willingly 
follow the kind advice of a friend, 
who recommended rectified turpen- 
tine and powdered pipeclay and I am 
happy to say that I can now clean 
twenty or twenty five specimens every 
morning without any failures. 
The other caution I have to give is 
concerning Cedarwood. Before I took 
up collecting Lcpidoptera I used to 
collect bird’s eggs, and, to preserve 
these treasures, I spent the first £5, 
I ever earned, in procuring a cedar 
cabinet, — and since then no mite has 
ever touched my eggs. But out of the 
cedar wood there has come a subtle 
vapour of turpentine, which has set- 
tled on the eggs in the form of drops 
of sticky gum, This can be removed 
by the application of spirits of wine 
or turpentine, but it will often soon 
appear again, and although it does 
not really injure eggs, it certainly 
would ruin the more fragile structure 
of insects. Revd. ,T. Hellinb, 
Chaplain’s House, County Prison, 
Exeter. 
* Note. I often keep Noctua for 
three weeks and sometimes even lon- 
ger, on my boards, before removing 
them to my store box or cabinet. 
CAPTURES. 
COLEOFTERA. 
Captures in Winter ( continued). 
Falagria ohscura. One specimen. 
Oxypoda longiuscula. Several, — at 
the roots of a Willow in the 
Bollin Valley. 
Homalota vicina. One specimen. 
Under bark on the same tree as 
the above. 
1L. cccrulea. One. With II. vicina. 
IT. analis. One specimen on the 
banks of the Birkin. 
Tachinus humeralis. Not very scarce. 
At roots of trees. 
