THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
29 
self found out the mode of using them 
in the interval between the appear- 
ance of my letter and his. Everyone 
too, must have experienced that re- 
laxing with damp sand &c. has too 
great an effect on old beetles &c, 
causing them to come to pieces some- 
times. A bottle, however, even one 
of the wide-mouthed ones, will not 
do for very large foreign, or even 
British insects. I have therefore 
adopted the following plan. I get a 
large round tin canister, and have it 
cut down to a depth of four inches. 
It is nine inches in diameter. Half 
way down it is divided by a piece of 
perforated zinc. The top lid has 
cork glued (or it might be otherwise 
fastened) within. The other side is 
filled with laurel leaves, and the 
damp comes through the perforated 
zinc and relaxes the insect above, on 
the other lid. I do not bruise the 
laurel leaves, for I always consider 
that the moisture beaten out is so 
much of the damp and aroma lost, 
but I have them chopped up very 
fine, and the effect is thorough. The 
great advantage of the laurel leaves 
over every other method is that there 
is no danger of harm, if the insects 
are removed within any reason- 
able time, but you may leave 
them under its influence for weeks or 
even months, and they only become 
all the better relaxed. I would say, 
however, for fear of accidents, 
put in fresh laurel leaves every three 
months, for not only will mould be 
thus guarded against, but it stands 
to reason that the fresh leaves will 
have all the more efficacy, 
I have been told that heath leaves 
will do as well, they also containing 
prussic acid, which keeps them a long 
time. — Rev. F. 0. Morris, Nunburn- 
holme Rectory, Hayton, York. 
CAPTURES. 
Lepidoptera. 
Capture of Rupee. — On Monday the 
9th. inst., I went out for a little 
pupa digging, but found I had been 
for the most part' anticipated by bet- 
ter pupa diggers than myself ; one of 
these, — a shrew mouse weighing just 
forty grains, — I was spiteful enough 
to kill, as he was skipping round the 
trunk of an oak ; and I had the wicked 
pleasure of rejoicing over the dead 
body of another, a male hanging from 
a trap. However, I got about a score 
of pupae, from one of which soon em- 
erged a female II. Leucophearia, and 
from another, in the course of the 
evening, a male T. Instabilis. Wish- 
ing to procure eggs of leucophearia, 
I employed a lad to catch me some 
males, but instead of this species he 
brought me a number of C. Brumata; 
perhaps I am only showing great ig- 
norance, but I must confess I was 
much surprised to find Brumata still 
on the wing. When I reared a brood 
of it once, I remember that the per- 
fect insects began to emerge in the 
first and second weeks of November, 
and here they are now flying in the 
second week of February, — thus 
giving for their flight a period of full 
three months. 
