EGGS AND LARV/E : BREEDING AND REARING. 



315 



FIG. 83. Drying Oven. A, 

 Lamp ; B, pin to hold door 

 open ; C, door open ; D, glass 

 cover. 



operation and the skin is inflated. A drying- apparatus is pro- 

 vided in several ways. A copper plate mounted upon four leg's, 

 and heated by an alcohol lamp placed below, has been advocated 

 by some. A better arrangement, used by 

 the writer, consists of a small oven heated 

 by the flame of an alcohol lamp, or by 

 jets of natural gas, and provided with 

 circular openings of various sizes, into 

 which the larval skin is introduced. (See 

 Fig. 83.) A modification of the oven is 

 given in Fig. 84. 



A less commendable method of pre- 

 serving larvae is to place them in alcohol. 

 The larvae should be tied up in sacks of 

 light gauze netting-, and a label of tough 

 paper with the date and locality of capture, and the name, if 

 known, written with a lead pencil, should be attached to each 



such little sack. Do not 

 use ink on labels to be im- 

 mersed, but a hard lead 

 pencil. Alcoholic speci- 

 mens are liable to become 

 shrivelled and discolored, 

 and are not nearly as valu- 

 able as well - inflated and 

 dried skins. 



AVhen the skins have 

 been inflated they may be 

 mounted readily by being- 

 placed upon wires wrapped 

 with given silk, or upon an- 

 nealed aluminium AVIIV. 

 The wires are bent and 

 twisted together for a short 

 distance and then made to 

 diverge as in Fig. 85. Tin- 

 diverging- ends are pressed together, a little shellac is placed 

 upon their tips, and they are then inserted into the opening at 

 the anal extremity of the larval skin. Upon the release of 



FIG. 84. Oven for Drying Larva-skin, made of tin 

 joined without solder and with top made of glass. 

 (After Riley.) 



