210 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, '04 



this work is well started, you will want to preserve a specimen 

 of each different kind of larva. Any method of preserving in 

 liquids is objectionable, owing to difficulty of taking care of 

 numberless bottles and the great trouble of studying the speci- 

 men so enclosed. I use an ordinary larva-inflating oven and 

 apparatus, the same as is used for large caterpillars, and as 

 shown by Fig. 19. The only difference in blowing large or 

 small ones is that, for the little ones, the glass tubes must be 

 pulled out to a very fine point. When ready to inflate, I 

 take the alcohol lamp from under the oven and place it before 

 me on the desk and, holding a glass tube by both ends, heat 

 the middle of it in the lamp-flame ; when, and not until, it is 

 a dull red, I give both ends a quick pull, which leaves two very 

 fine hair-like points; repeat this until you have enough. 

 Place the lamp back under the oven, so that it will be warmed 

 up for the next operation. 



Then pick up a larva and drop him for a moment in a tiny 

 glass of alcohol, and as soon as he is motionless, lift him up 

 and lay on end of forefinger of left hand, with anal end up ; 

 then very gently, with thumb or pencil, squeeze the contents 

 through the anal opening ; a sharp knife to scrape this away 

 as fast as it appears will prevent discoloring the skin. 



Still holding the deflated skin between thumb and forefinger 

 of left hand, pick up a glass tube, wet the point to prevent stick- 

 ing, and carefully insert in anal opening. Then for a second or 

 two hold in the oven, which will cause the skin to stick fast to 

 the tube. Then stick the big end of the glass tube in the rub- 

 ber tube connecting to the double bulb, and give the latter the 

 least bit of a squeeze, and if everything has been properly 

 done, the skin of the larva will spring out rounded and full 

 size. Then, still keeping up light pressure on bulb, place in 

 oven for a minute or two, until the skin is hard. 



With a pair of sharp scissors, snip off the glass tube about 

 a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch behind the larva. 



To mount, draw a number six pin through a small block of 

 cork about a quarter of an inch square, then at right angles 

 to the big pin stick a Minutien-Nadln through until the point 

 comes out the other side a quarter of an inch or more. Touch 

 the point of the Minutien-Nadln with thin shellac and care- 



