1898.] 149 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



[The Conductors of ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS solicit, and will thankfully receive items 

 of news, likely to interest its readers, from any source. The author's name will be given 

 in each case for the information of cataloguers and bibliographers.] 



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PHILADELPHIA, PA., JUNE, 1898. 



_ 



PACKING OF INSECTS. 



We think that it will be necessary to publish in the NEWS an 

 article on packing insects for shipment by mail or express for the 

 benefit of professors of entomology, experiment station ento- 

 mologists, beginners and others. We receive many packages 

 of insects here and have a good opportunity of finding out how 

 little some of our good friends know about the subject. Occa- 

 sionally a box arrives by mail without any covering or packing 

 whatever, and then we fasten a handle to it and give it to the 

 baby for a rattle The sender in this case certainly has faith. 

 Next comes a box with packing on two sides. The fellow that 

 sends this kind reminds us of the ostrich who sticks his head in 

 the sand and thinks he can't be seen. Another variety is the 

 kind with sufficient space between the outer and inner box, but 

 the packing has evidently been hammered in with mallet and 

 chisel. The fellow that sends this kind is evidently not a physi- 

 cist. The commonest mistake of all is to have much waste space 

 in the inner box. Don't send a few specimens in a box that will 

 hold fifty, as the smaller the box, as a rule, the greater its safety. 

 There are really few people in America that understand the fine 

 art of properly packing insects for shipment. We will publish 

 an article on this subject in a subsequent issue. 



