INSECTS BY MAIL. 69 



B. Habits. Date of appearance and disappearance of the per- 

 fect insect ; number of annual broods ; localities most favor- 

 able, etc. 



C. Transformations. I. The egg: description, sketch, duration 

 of this stage ; where and how deposited by the female. 2. Larva : 

 number of molts, and changes noticed in these molts ; duration of 

 each molt, and entire time consumed in this stage ; food-plants of 

 the larva ; drawings. 3. Chrysalis : description ; methods of pro- 

 tection and fastening ; duration of this stage ; special observations. 

 4. Parasites observed during these stages (ichneumons, chalcids, 

 etc.). 



D. Concluding remarks, with notes drawn from various works 

 on the subject, and a list of such references. 



Having thus worked up a few species of Lepidoptera, 

 you might, to advantage, take up successively the other 

 orders, Hymenoptera, Cjleoptera, Neuroptera, etc., treat- 

 ing them in the same way, and concluding the course 

 by a careful study of insects as a class. Then you can 

 return to your favorite order or family, and carry on 

 your special researches and observations, minutely and 

 intelligently. 



We add the following Department directions for 

 sending insects by mail : 



All inquiries about insects, injurious or otherwise, should be ac- 

 companied by specimens, the more the better. Such specimens, if 

 dead, should be packed in some soft material, as cotton or wool, 

 and inclosed in some stout tin or wooden box. They will come by 

 mail for one cent per ounce. Insects should never be inclosed loose 

 in the letter. Whenever possible, larvae (i. e. , grubs, caterpillars, 

 maggots, etc.) should be packed alive in some tight tin box the 

 tighter the better, as air-holes are not needed along with a sup- 

 ply of their appropriate food sufficient to last them on their jour- 

 ney ; otherwise, they generally die on the road and shrivel up. 

 Send as full an account as possible of the habits of the insect 

 respecting which you desire information ; for example, what plant 

 or plants it infests ; whether it destroys the leaves, the buds, the 

 twigs, or the stem ; how long it has been known to you ; what 

 amount of damage it has done, etc. Such particulars are often 



