Quadrupeds. 013 



Cambridge; and it may be well to remark that the season, although upon the whole 

 prolific in Coleoptera, has proved particularly unfavourable to several of our most lo- 

 cal species. Panagaeus crux-major and Odacantha melanura have as usual appeared 

 in the greatest profusion, especially the latter, which has occurred by tens of thousands 

 amongst the sedge. 

 Triplax cenea. Twenty-two specimens Apion carbonarium and sub sulcatum. Very 



from an old ash tree at Trumping- abundant in dead leaves and moss. 



ton. The insect is considered ex- It is remarkable that out of at least 



ceedingly rare in Cambridgeshire, one hundred specimens of the for- 



and has not been observed for many mer insect which I have examined, 



years. not a single male has occurred, nor 



Elater bipustulatus. Abundant at Ma- can I discover a single example in 



dingley in moss. any of our local cabinets. I should 



Strongylus strigatus. With the above, in be glad to know if any contributor to 



moss. ' The Zoologist ' has observed in 



Cryptophagus cellaris. Also in company other localities this unequal distri- 



with the preceding. bution of the sexes. 



Crypta bipunctata. Amongst sedge, wash- Crepidodera Salicarice. In the utmost pro - 



ed up after a flood. fusion amongst sedge, in company 



Ptomophagus anisitomoides. In dead leaves with Crypta bipunctata. 



at Granchester. Ischnomera ccerulea. Three specimens from 



Rhyncolus lignarius. Abundant in old an old ash tree, in company with Tri- 



trees at Fulbourn. plax aenea, at Trumpington. 



Acalles variegatus. Granchester, one spn. 



Were I to add less recent captures, I might enumerate, amongst other rarities, Athoiis 

 pubescens, Ptinus 6-punctatus, Ips4-punctata, Lininobius fulvipes, Dorytomus salaci- 

 nus {Gyll.) and Thyamis dorsalis. I may also here mention that I had the good luck 

 in June last to capture a specimen of Omias Baumanii (Germ.), which I brushed into 

 my net from a meadow in the neighbourhood of Stamford, in Lincolnshire. — T. V. 

 Wollaston ; Jesus College, Cambridge, 



Note on a proposed Substitute for Spirits of Wine in preserving Specimens of Natu- 

 ral History. Perhaps the following cheap substitute for spirits of wine, in preserving 

 anatomical and other specimens, may be new and useful to some of your readers, viz., 

 kreasote, 10 drops, water, If pint. The antiseptic properties of this solution, which 

 are said to be superior to those of spirits of wine, were discovered by M. Pigne, and 

 first published by him in the ' Gazette Medicale de Paris,' March 9, 1844. — R. C. R. 

 Jordan ; Lympstone. 



Anecdote of extraordinary duration of torpidity in a Bat. A very curious instance 

 of the great length of time that a bat can remain in a state of torpidity, came under 

 my notice about three weeks since ; and as I believe instances of the kind are but rare- 

 ly observed, perhaps an account of the facts of the case may not prove uninteresting. 

 Upon opening a vault in Bishopsbourne church, the bricklayer observed a large bat 

 clinging to the wall. Thinking it a curious thing to find a bat in a vault which he 

 knew had not been opened for twenty-one years, in the evening he sent it to me by his 



