THE LEPI'DUPTEKIST 11 



do specimen (which we have examined in the Field 

 Museum and would refer to hermia) as this latter 

 species. 



Regarding californica there has always been a vari- 

 ety of opinions as to its identity ; the type cannot be 

 found ; it was described from Yreka, Siskiyou Co., 

 Calif, and according to Strecker (1. c. p. 98) was once 

 in the Collection of the Am. Ent. Soc. at Philadel- 

 phia; he later (1. c. Suppl. Ill, p. 35) lists it as in his 

 own collection but it is not to be found in either of 

 these places. In the Carnegie Museum at Pittsburg 

 we discovered an old specimen among some Noctuids 

 formerly in the Mead Collection which was labelled 

 'Yreka, Cal.' and which was probably one of the type 

 lot if not the type; this we believe identical with 

 mariana Stkr. and have based the synonymy in our 

 recent Check List on this comparison; our own col- 

 lecting experiences in the Shasta region, which is 

 quite close to Yreka, would point in this direction as 

 among some sixty odd specimens of Catocalas that 

 were captured at sugar over 80 per cent were this 

 same species, the others being montana Beut., alliisa 

 Hist, and aholihah Stkr. ; the species shows both pale 

 and dark sufifused forms, a specimen of each form 

 having served respectively for the descriptions given 

 by Strecker (1. c. p. 99) and by Hy Edwards (Pac. 

 Coast Lep. p. 76) which tended to still further confuse 

 matters. The larva of californica is much darker 

 brown than those of briscis and vcrecunda; further 

 details concerning these we must reserve for the 

 Catocala revision in course of publication by the Am- 

 reican Museum of Nat. History. Plate II. 



The plates called for in papers by Drs. Barnes and 

 McDonnough and Cassino are in process of engraving 

 and will be sent with the issue for March or April. 



How to Degrease Specimens of Lepidoptera 



Mr. Philip Laurent of Philadelphia explains an easy 

 and satisfactory method of cleaning greasy Lepidop- 

 tera. White blotting paper is placed on each side of 



