HALF-HOURS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 381 



have remarkable scales not found in the other sex. Those from 

 Garden-Whites and Meadow-Browns are commonly known and 

 figured. John Watson, of Manchester, has done most hitherto 

 towards advancing our knowledge on this subject. His observa- 

 tions, so far as published, are to be found in Tratisaciions of the 

 Literary and Philosophical Society of Matichester. 



Beetle from Butterfly Cabinet (PI. XXIV., Figs. 1—7.)— This 

 is Dermestes lardarius, the Bacon beetle, the type of the Dermesiidce. 

 I have preferred representing her ladyship from a living specimen. 

 You will thereby be better able to recognise her if she come under 

 your notice. The head, thorax, and hinder half of the elytra are 

 pitchy black ; over the upper part of her body (and not only when 

 she goes to courts but in every-day life also) she wears a beautiful 

 fur cloak, elegantly " Vandyked " below, with three spots of a rich 

 purple colour on each shoulder. Her otfspring is very destructive 

 to furs, stuffed specimens, the contents of entomological cabinets, 

 etc. As to how her ladyship got to where she was found, she 

 might say with Topsy, " I guess I growed there " ! The form of 

 the ovipositor leaves little difficulty in settling that point. Her 

 mamma (guided by an acute sense of smell) doubtless inserted 

 her tool as far as she could at some part where the two halves of 

 the box join, then dropped an egg. The little rascal hatched from 

 it, lively and slippery as an eel (having long, polished, backward- 

 pointing hairs all over), soon wriggled its way in, then revelled for 

 a twelvemonth at least on the choice treasures in our friend's 

 cabinet. It then, after moulting several times, at each operation 

 growing much bigger, in due course of nature went to sleep for a 

 time in its last larval skin, through which the perfect beetle burst 

 on arriving at maturity. Westwood has some most interesting 

 notes on this genus {Mod. Class, of Insects, I., 155 — 161), to 

 which reference must be made for further information. 



Skin of Carder Fish (PI. XXIV., Figs. 8— 12).— I have spent 

 some time in trying to ascertain the scientific name of this fish, 

 but without success. The scales differ somewhat in form from 

 those of the Lesser Spotted Dog-Fish, Scyllium caniculiim ; still 

 more in the closeness with which they are set on the skin. Still, 



