108 



THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



a movable wire loop, indicated in the woodcut by the dotted line,* but 

 this would seem superfluous. 



The wire should be very fine and annealed ; the best is that wound 

 with green thread and used for artificial flowers. It should not be more 



FiL'. 20. 



than half a millimetre in diameter; the cut represents it magnified nine- 

 teen diameters (fig. 21). 



The straw, Mr. Goossens, of Paris, my courteous instructor in this 

 art, who possesses a collection of nearly a thousand species of inflated 

 caterpillars, uses nothing but ordinary wheat straw, choosing stout, dry 

 pieces of various sizes, the cross section of which is perfectly circular ; 

 ^'s- 21- with these he inflates the smallest 



micros and the largest sphingidae. — 

 Various modifications have been sug- 

 gested ; a glass tube drawn to a fine 

 point,and provided with a pair of spring 



clips to attach to the caterpillar, is a favorite form ; the Germans use this 

 largely, and sometimes attach the caterpillar by threads passed around 

 the anal prolegs. Dr. LeConte informs me that Dr. Gemminger uses a 

 finely pointed tube with an elastic bulb attached, like a rubber syringe. 

 Mr. Riley suggests (as his drawing represents) still another mode, which 

 is to pierce a piece of soft wood along the grain with a fine heated wire 



The engraver should have made this loop hang from the edges of the oven. 



