162 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



used ; but the desideratum is to know wliat liquid should be 

 used as a preservative, either before or after the bodies are 

 emptied. On Saturday afternoon, December 31s(, I put two 

 or three larva? of Agrotis Segetiim into weak spirits of wine 

 (I say weak, because, after an immersion of ten minutes the 

 larvjE showed evident symptoms of life), and allowed them to 

 remain in the spirit until Monday morning, when, upon look- 

 ing at them, I found them as black as a piece of coal, and of 

 course utterly spoiled. I should therefore feel greatly obliged 

 to you or any of your readers for information on this sub- 

 ject. — Henry Reeks; Manor House, Thruxton, Andover, 

 January 16, 1865. 



[A. very excellent subject for inquiry : like Mr. Reeks- 1 

 find that spirits of wine turns my larvge black, and shall be 

 greatly obliged for a remedy. I have obtained a gross of 

 small vials for the express purpose of containing larvae, and 

 there is not now a single specimen with recognizable colours. 

 — Edward Newman.] 



103. Singular Geoc/raphical Race of Hepinlus Humiili. 

 — There has just been added to the British collection in the 

 British Museum a most abnormal series of Hepialus Humuli, 

 taken in the Shetland Islands. 1 am unable to decide on the 

 sex of each specimen ; indeed, so extremely puzzling is the 

 appearance of the series, that I have been led to doubt the 

 accuracy of the conclusion at which Entomologists have 

 arrived, that all the specimens of Hepialus Humuli with 

 white wings ai-e males, and all those with fulvous wings 

 females. In some specimens the fore wings are tinted with 

 yellow, while the hind wings are pure white ; in others the 

 fore wings are pure white, the hind wings dark fuscous. In 

 those specimens supposed, from their general appearance, to 

 be females, the tint is paler than in our southern specimens, 

 and more approaches a dull lemon-yellow than fulvous : the 

 body is uniformly dark fuscous, and the hind wings, when 

 tinted at all, are of the same dark colour : Mr. Bond ex- 

 hibited these insects at the last Meeting of the Entomolo- 

 gical Society, and made some observations respecting them. 

 Should these specimens prove anything more than a geo- 

 graphical race, and be received as a species, I would pro- 

 pose for them the name of Hepialus thulensis. — Edivard 

 Newman. P.S. Can any Entomologist inform me how to 



