THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. Ill 



the caterpillar in place when dry : the extremities of the parted wires 

 should reach nearly to the head. Nothing remains but to curve the 

 doubled end of the wire tightly around a pin with a pair of strong forceps 

 and to place the specimen properly labelled, in a place where it can dry 

 thoroughly for two or three days before removal to the cabinet. 



For more careful preservation and readier handling, Mr. Goossens- 

 employs a different method, placing each specimen in a glass tube, like 

 the test tube of the chemist. The wire is first bent in the middle and the 

 bent end inserted in a hole bored in the smaller end of a cork of suitable 

 size, so as nearly to pass through it ; the loops are then formed as above ;. 

 both ends of the cork are varnished, and a label pasted around the 

 portion of the cork which enters the tube, thus guarding both specimen 

 and label from dust, and the latter from loss or misplacement. After two 

 Or three days the cork with the caterpillar attached is placed in its cor- 

 responding tube, and the tube may be freely handled. 



Modifications of this system will occur to every one. Dr. Gemminger 

 uses a syringe for the extraction of the contents as well as for the inflation. 

 of the emptied skin. For an oven, the Vienna entomologists employ an 

 ordinary gas-chimney, open at both ends and inserted in a sand bath, 

 which prevents, perhaps, the danger of too great heat. 



TRANSLATION OF THE SYNOPSIS OF THE GENERA OF 



EUROPEAN MYCETOPHILID^. 



BY FRANCIS WALKER, LONDON, ENGLAND. 



The Diptera, generally considered, are less attractive than other orders^ 

 of insects, and appear to be more insignificant, but are the most useful on 

 account of their excessive abundance and of their purification of matter 

 and thereby of the atmosphere. In like manner, the Diptera may be divided 

 into more or less numerous and beneficial tribes, and the work assigned 

 to the former is the removal of decaying substances. The fungus race is 

 in subjection to the Mycetophilidae, and are the means for the develope- 

 ment of the perfect state of the latter, according to the law whereby 

 degradation precedes the attainment of a higher state, and this law is 

 exemplified in minerals, plants and animals. In like manner the 



