142 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



jaunes dans la Phcebe"* (Dup. ' Papillons de France,' p. 276). 

 Herrich-Schaffer, judging from Hiibner's illustration, considered 

 it a variety of parthenie, a much more possible suggestion than 

 Staudinger's connection of it with athalia. The under side at 

 once separates it from both, and connects it, as Duponchel says, 

 with the cinxia group, and both larva and pupa are abundantly 

 different from either, a fact which settles its specific value, a 

 matter to which we shall have to refer later ; the Spanish speci- 

 mens and the Swiss form, the misnamed herisalensis, have 

 greatly added to the difficulties connected with this species. 



DRAGONFLIES FOR THE CABINET. 

 By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. 



By the beginning of June the dragonfly season has com- 

 menced in earnest, and it may be that some entomologists who 

 would like to collect and study the Odonata are deterred by the 

 idea that they cannot keep specimens of these insects in as 

 unchanged a condition as they can those of beetles or Lepido- 

 ptera. Nor is this wish to secure a presentable set of specimens 

 of necessity a sign of the " mere collector," for every naturalist 

 who desires that his statements may bear the stamp of accuracy 

 must possess a sufficiency of good specimens for continual refer- 

 ence and comparison. 



To a certain extent this widespread idea, that the colours of 

 dragonflies are evanescent, is correct, the colouring matter being 

 situated in a part of the insect quite different from that in which 

 the colours of Lepidoptera reside. But this evanescence is not 

 by any means so general as is usually supposed, when a few 

 simple precautions have been taken. There are, in fact, many 

 dragonflies in which the colours remain practically as fine as 

 they were when the insects were alive. 



It will be found too that in some individuals the colours 

 remain after death much more true than in others of the same 

 species, and in cases where the insect is a common one, a selec- 

 tion will enable the one interested to gradually obtain a good 

 series. This as a matter of fact is practically all that can be 

 done in the case of the very small species which are too delicate 

 to be eviscerated. 



* This Melitcea forms a transition between phcebe and athalia. On the 

 upper &ide it shows the same design as the latter, with this difference that 

 the central band and the terminal lunules of the fom* wings are of a lighter 

 fulvous than the ground colour. On the under side it only differs from the 

 former in that the black lines which bound the spots and bands of the lower 

 wings are finer, and also that the ground colour of these wings is of a paler 

 yellow, and the nervures black, while they are yellow in 2'/'o?ie. 



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