Entomological Society. 7375 



enclosed in a single sbeath, the outer surface of which becomes hardened by a glu- 

 tinous secretion, by which the whole are fastened together into a solid mass. 



Mr. Fereday exhibited a living larva, apparently of Triphtena proiiuba, which had 

 been found, a short time previously, lying on the snow with which the ground was 

 then covered, and frozen quite hard, but ou being removed to a warm room quickly 

 became active. 



Mr. Waterhouse exhibited a new British species of Scydmaeniis, and a series of the 

 British Euplecti, and read some notes on their differential characters. 



Mr. Scoit exhibited a new species of Coleophora, and read a description of it, pro- 

 posing for it the specific name of Wilkinsoni, the insect having first been- discovered 

 by Mr. T. Wilkinson, at Scarborough. 



Mr. M'Lachlan observed that he had found the larra-cases of this species at 

 Dulwicb Wood. 



How to cure Grease in Insects. 



Dr. Wallace read the following paper : — 



" The Rev. Joseph Greene has given us (Zool. 6692) his method of curing grease 

 in insects. Other entomologists extract the interior of greasy bodies, with very fine 

 scissors, at a subsequent period after setting, whenever signs of grease are evident. I 

 propose another method, more economical of time, equally certain in action. 



" Small greasy insects — as Tineidce, Tortricidae, Crambidae, small Geometrae, Py- 

 ralidae and Bombycidae— I soak entire in benzole. Of all large insects which may 

 even be suspected of grease, having disarticulated the bodies from the thorax, and 

 labelled according to the plan suggested by Mr. Greene — either of a year's capture or 

 of many years' collecting — I expose such (bodies) to the heat of the fire, on a cork 

 placed at about six inches distance ; and if the grease has previously run into the 

 thorax and spread over the wings, such parts must be further soaked in the manner 

 above recommended for the smaller insects. By exposure on a cork to the fire, the 

 grease, being liquefied and permeating the body, shows itself on the exterior, causing 

 softening and a dark discoloration ; if no such action takes place there is no amount 

 of grease in the interior of the body, and no need to slit open the body as hereafter 

 described. Simple soaking for a few days in benzole will remove the small portion of 

 grease which may be deposited on the exterior of the insect. 



" When discoloration and softening ensue, I slit open the body on the under sur- 

 face and soak in benzole for twenty-four hours ; then, taking say a hundred or more 

 bodies, I boil them as rapidly as possible in about an ounce or more of benzole (adding 

 a little from time to time) in a water bath, which may be easily composed of a sauce- 

 pan containing water, in which is placed the covered jar containing the benzole and 

 the bodies. In this process that portion of benzole which had previously soaked into 

 the interior of the slit body, having been brought into close relation with the grease so 

 as to dissolve it, is very readily volatilised ; bubbles of gas are seen to efi'ervesce rapidly 

 from the body, currents of boiling benzole rush into and out of the slit body, and the 

 grease is literally washed out. This may be best observed by boiling a single body 

 with a drachm of benzole in a test-tube over a spirit lamp : but if the body be soaked, 

 and not boiled, the benzole in the interior of the slit body dissolves the fat ; but, while 

 drying, it percolates slowly through the substance of the body, and deposits again in 

 the interior nearly the whole of the grease previously dissolved, that portion only being 



