124 THE YOUNG 



well rather than cheap and indifferently. 



G. F. W., Birmingham. — We make no 

 charge for the insertion of Exchanges. 



E. E. G., Brighton. — Could you favour us 

 with either a better drawing or the loan 

 of the specimen to figure ? 



O. A. W., Fdgbaston. — The small animals 

 you name will be acari, but whether they 

 came from the bran, or the lining of the 

 egg, we cannot say. They can be de- 

 stroyed by any of the means used for kill- 

 ing insects, but their eggs would remain. 

 No doubt if the birds' eggs are rinsed out 

 with a solution of corrosive sublimate it 

 would be a preservative from mites, but 

 we could not recommend so deadly a 

 poison to our younger readers. We have 

 had eggs in our collection many years 

 that have had no such preparation, and 

 not one of them has ever been injured by 

 mites, If well washed out, and dried 

 carefully, they will generally keep well, 

 unless, of course, they are placed among 

 infected eggs. We will give an article at 

 an early date on how to arrange eggs in 

 the cabinet. We shall be glad to see the 

 articles you name. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Sir, — I have in my possession several 

 curious specimens of Thrushes' eggs. I 

 have two entirely without spots, and one 

 with large dull light red blotches. One 

 which I think most of, is streaked with long 

 black streaks radiating from the base, and 

 going in an irregular spiral. All of them I 

 collected in Liverpool. I have also had an 

 old and valuable collection of butterflies 

 given me, among which are British speci- 

 mens of the Camberwell beauty, purple 

 Emperor, and large Copper ; also a doubtful 

 Apollo from the Island of Lewis. — Wishing 

 you every success with your little Journal, 



NATURALIST. 



which I am sure deserves, and ought to 

 succeed, believe me, your well-wisher, 



E. G. DUFF. 

 Beaufort House, Cheltenham, 

 Jan. 23, 1880. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Hermaphrodite O. Antiqa.—I have a 

 very curious hermaphrodite Orgvia Antigua ; 

 it was bred by a friend of mine, Mr. Nor- 

 man, who brought it to me alive. One side 

 is male and the other female ; when alive it 

 ran about the box with the wing on the 

 male side moving, trying to fly. — Thomas 

 Eedle. 



Parasites on V. urtic^e. — I notice in 

 your last number a query as to V. urticae. 

 I beg to state that, having bred that insect 

 on several occasions, it has only fallen to 

 my lot once to have a single pupa in which 

 were ichneumous. I might state that they 

 were exceedingly small ; I did not count 

 them, but they were very numerous. The 

 pupa was literally riddled with holes. — 

 T. W. Russell, 6, Leverton Street, Kentish 

 Town. 



Parasites. — I have bred the following 

 Ichneumons from butterfly larvae : — Limneria 

 albidens, from G. rhamni ; Microgaster 

 ovularum, from M. artemis ; Microgaster 

 glomeratus, from P. brassicae. From Pupae : 

 Anomalon Xanthopus, from P. Daplidice. — 

 G. C. Bignall. 



ABRAXAS GROSSULARIATA. 



In our article "on forming a Collection of 

 Lepidoptera " on page 17, we referred to a 

 certain species of which scarcely two speci- 

 mens could be found alike. The insect 

 named above is one of the most variable of 

 our British species, and we propose now to 

 make a few remarks upon it with regard to 



