526 VARIETIES. 



in the above town. As this insect, in its larva state, feeds on 

 an exotic plant, the Nerium Oleander, its appearance must be 

 purely accidental : its geographical limits I believe terminating 

 in the south of France. J. F. Stephens. 



Sejit.lQth, 1S33. 



70. Longevity of Lepisma saccharina, and other Insects. — 

 Sir, Had not an unexpected occupation, incidently connected 

 with entomology, unfortunately prevented me, I intended to 

 have composed a short monograph upon some neglected group 

 of insects, and to have forwarded it to you for your present 

 volume; and my time being now fully engaged in preparing 

 for the recommencement of my " Illustrations,"'" still hinders 

 me from carrying my design into execution: however, there is 

 one subject to which I wish to direct attention, viz. the longe- 

 vity of insects, and other annulose animals; my notice having 

 been called thereto by the following occurrence. In June, 1831 , 

 I obtained a considerable number of the common " Wood-" 

 or " Sugar-fish," {Lepisma saccJiarina, L.), out of a box 

 imported from India ; these were packed away in pill-boxes in 

 a place of safety for future investigation; but, as they belonged 

 to a group of annvlosa, to which my attention was but slightly 

 devoted, they were suffered to remain untouched : — my surprise 

 was great, when, in June last, [1833], in clearing my boxes for 

 a projected excursion to Cambridge, &c., I found one of the 

 Lepismce alive and merry, after so protracted a confinement — 

 about two years — in the box were only a few grains of mag- 

 nesia, or the white powder employed by chemists in packing 

 their pills. I this year kept a specimen of Clo'con pallidum — 

 one of the reputed short-lived Ephemeridcc — alive from the 

 20th of May to the 9th of June. In February, 1832, I saw a 

 living specimen of Hcematicherns Lleros, that was taken in 

 the preceding August at Padua ; a proof that insects belonging 

 to the section Longicornes, Lat., occasionally survive the 

 winter — a fact which I believe has hitherto been doubted.'^ I 



•^ A numbei- of which, Mr. Stephens informs us, will appear on the 31st of 

 October.— Ed, 



*• A Saperda Carcharias, which I bred on tlie 5th of July last, from a pupa that 

 was given to me by my friend, J. A. Power, Esq., who dug- it out of an aspen on 

 the 30th of June preceding, in Bottisham Fen, died on the 21th of July following- : 

 of this insect more than 200 specimens have been taken this year. 



