NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 219 



cardamines, " measuring on an average only about an inch and a 

 quarter from tip to tip of the fore wings," and as having the black 

 discoidal spot situated " at the juncture of the orange and white 

 spaces, not, as in K. cardaiiiinea, well within the orange tip," the 

 costa of the fore wings being sprinkled with black. When viewed 

 under the microscope, it is stated " the wing-scales appear to be very 

 different from those of E. carddmiui's." I have a specimen taken here 

 by myself answering to these particulars, except as regards the scales 

 of the wing. After careful examination with the microscope, however, 

 I can detect little or no difference in these. It may be that in the black 

 discoidal spot in the typical cardaminea they are narrower and longer 

 than in the smaller insect. For this the writer proposes the name of 

 Euchlu'ii liesperides : but it seems to me that, without knowing more of 

 the life-history of the insect, the distinctive characteristics are very 

 slight for raising it to the rank of a species. — Joseph Anderson, Jun. ; 

 Chichester, Sussex. 



Spilosoma mendica var. rustica, and Amphidasys betularia var. 

 DOUBLEDAYARiA. — A Writer in the June number of ' Societas Entomo- 

 logica,' referring to these two varieties, says that the former is abun- 

 dant and constant in Roumania, and stated that the latter, -which has 

 hitherto been considered confined to England, now extends all over 

 Germany, including Silesia and Saxony. — N. F. Dobree ; Beverley, 

 Yorkshire, June 12th, 1894. 



Nepticula tormentillella ? — From mines in Torinentilla officinal is, 

 obtained at Windermere last October, I am now breeding a very distinct 

 looking Nepticida. The larvae were of a deep yellow colour; the mines 

 were conspicuous, and there were several on a plant. The sexes of the 

 moth are of the same type, but the female is much larger than the 

 male. This species should be the N. tuniwntillella which was expunged 

 from our lists in favour of X. serella. The specimens are as large again 

 as those of N. .serella. I may add that the species, which I will call 

 N. tonnentillella, is exceedingly local, although the food-plant is plentiful 

 enough in some of the woods. — J. B. Hodgkinson ; Ashton-on-Ribble, 

 April 12th, 1894. 



Extraction of Sugar from the Bodies of Insects. — It is well 

 known that Nocture, when gorged and glutted with sugar, are apt, if 

 killed before the expulsion of their contents, to present an unsightly 

 appearance ; for after a variable time the more lluid portions of the 

 sugaring compound will sometimes permeate the tissues, and cause 

 darker stains upon the surface than even grease itself; while, many 

 years after having been converted into specimens, black bead-like drops 

 have been observed to exude from pin-pricks in the bodies of such species 

 as Scopelosoma satcllitia and Cerastis vaccinii. This condition of things 

 is by no means difficult to remedy. The plan here suggested is to 

 double up a small piece of tinfoil, run a pin up to the head through it, 

 and stand it, pin-point upwards, in a tea-cup ; then break off' the body 

 to be operated upon, stick it thoracic end downwards on the pin, and 

 cover the whole with cold distilled water for an hour or so. The object 

 of thus fixing the body is to keep it off' the bottom of the vessel, in order 

 that the offending matter as it melts may sink with as little soiling of 



