THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGISt. 117 



Genital characters : Valve longer than the last ventral segment, obtuse, 

 brown edged with pale. Plates about one half longer than the valve, 

 narrowed at the apical third ; brownish yellow clouded at base, with a 

 few long pale submarginal spines. 



Mississippi. Described Irom two males received from Mr. Howard 

 Evarts Weed. 



ENTOMOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS— PACKING INSECTS FOR 



TRANSPORTATION. 



BY H. F. WICKHAM, IOWA CITY, IOWA. 



By request of Mr. Fletcher I add a few remarks to his article in the 

 January number on " Killing, Preserving and Relaxing Insects," though 

 the subject is so well treated there as to leave little room for additional 

 comment. 



The action of the cyanide bottle cannot be depended on as effectual 

 in such a short time as Mr. Fletcher mentions, except in the case of the 

 most tender insects, many Rhynchophora will live there for several hours 

 unless the bottle is quite freshly prepared, and I know of one case in 

 which a Coelocnemis remained alive all night confined in a bottle strong 

 enough to quickly overcome the large southwestern species of Cleonus. 

 For most northern and eastern insects, however, a short space of time in 

 the bottle is sufficient. 



The tubes spoken of should be made of tolerably stiff paper — old 

 envelopes answer nicely — but it should not be coloured, as by the common 

 mode of relaxing the insects while still in the tubes there is danger of 

 staining the more delicate ones. Each tube should have a compact wad 

 of cotton placed in the bottom, then the insects (if they are elongate 

 species or have long legs and antennae) should be carefully dropped or 

 pushed in, head foremost, so as to reduce to a minimum the danger of 

 breakage. Now place another wad of cotton on them and close up the 

 tube, which may be easily done by tucking in the edges with the fingers. 

 In the case of such insects as Pterostichus it is my practice to place four 

 specimens, say the size of mutus, together in a bunch so that the heads 

 all point the same way and the legs lie close together, the backs being 

 outermost ; now by introducing the heads of all at once into the open end 

 of a tube a little pressure on the posterior extremities will pack them 

 nicely in place. After they are in, if it is desired to put another set of 

 four in the same tube it is much better to place a small but firm wad of 



