284 ENTOMOLOGY. 



taken up upon paper or a strip of glass and transferred to 

 cold water, and then spread out to dry upon paper or glass. 

 If upon paper, the wing can presently be separated there- 

 from by bending the paper away from it, and it can either 

 be mounted permanently as an object for the microscope, 

 or be placed temporarily for examination within a compress- 

 cell, care being taken to flatten it out by only vertical and 

 gentle pressure. If the result be then unsatisfactory, the 

 whole process can be repeated. 



COLLECTING AND REARING DIPTERA. 



For collecting flies, Dr. Williston states that June in 

 New England is the best season, so that April in the cotton 

 States, May in the Middle and Southern-Central States, 

 would be the best time for those regions. In May and the 

 early part of June, beating will give excellent results. A 

 little later, patches of blackberry, wild cherry, dogwood, 

 Canada thistle (Cirsium), or other melliferous blossoms, 

 will afford desirable specimens. " It is better to let speci- 

 mens come to the collector than to go hastily about looking 

 for them. I have spent six hours about a patch of Cor mis 

 paniculata not ten metres in diameter, and been amply 

 repaid. But few specimens are found in shady woods; 

 those few are to be sought for there. The favorite places 

 for Tabanidas, as indeed for most flies, are on the borders 

 of woods, open glades, meadow-lands, etc." 



Dr. Williston advises the use of cyanide bottles of the 

 following description, as specimens collected in ordinary 

 cyanide bottles are worthless for scientific purposes. " I 

 select/' he says, "several one- or two-ounce wide-mouthed 

 bottles of the same form, and carefully line the bottom and 

 sides with a good quality of blotting-paper. Good, firm 

 corks are selected which are interchangeable in the dif- 

 ferent bottles: in one of these corks a small hole is made, 

 in which it is better to fit a small metallic ferule; a strip 



