2O4 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [May, '14 



mens will find room in a single box. Eight such boxes can be 

 placed in an ordinary suit case together with nets and other 

 paraphernalia, and will accommodate 300 to 400 specimens. 



When it is desired to move to another locality or to ship 

 specimens home, the blotters in the boxes are moistened, a 

 few hours in advance, with water to which a few drops of, 

 carbolic acid have been added, and the boxes for the time left 

 upside down. The specimens will thus be sufficiently relaxed 

 to stand the roughest kind of journey without the slightest 

 damage, and will remain pliant for from 24 to 72 hours ac- 

 cording to the amount of water supplied. If the boxes are 

 wrapped with wax paper and an outer wrapping of stout 

 paper, the moisture is conserved and the period of pliancy ac- 

 cordingly prolonged. 



In handling my specimens in the above manner, I place on 

 the pin of each specimen, at the time of pinning, a temporary 

 pin label, bearing a number to indicate the locality, besides 

 the date of capture. This pin label accompanies the specimen 

 during all subsequent handling, and is ultimately replaced by 

 a permanent label carrying full data obtained from a field note 

 book or key. 



The advantages of this method may be summed up as fol- 

 lows: 



1. Immunity from damage to specimens in transit and 

 handling. 



2. Retention of natural shape of bodies of insects. 



3. Greater facility in relaxing and spreading, resulting in 

 much better specimens, with wings in better position. 



4. Ready examination, selection and identification of ma- 

 terial without the delay of spreading. 



This method is not entirely original, being first suggested 

 by seeing Mr. R. W. Dawson, of the University of Nebraska, 

 place his specimens in tin boxes at the end of a day's collect- 

 ing, and pin them on the following day when they were pliable 

 so that the wings readily remained in a horizontal position. 

 Possibly other collectors have hit upon the same scheme, but 

 many have not and it seems good enough to pass along for 

 their benefit. 



