176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tumbler or jam-pot, the top of which has been ground to receive 

 an air-tight glass cover, the bottom of which has been covered with 

 moist white sand, will keep a leaf fresh for a week, and thus a larva 

 in the summer will have to be fed but two or three times before it 

 changes ; and the moth can be seen through the glass without 

 taking off the cover. Or a glass cylinder can be placed over a 

 plant placed in wet sand, having the top covered with gauze. The 

 pupae easily dry up ; they should be kept moist, in tubes of glass 

 closed at either end, through which the moth can be seen when 

 disclosed. Instead of benzine, powdered and crushed laurel or 

 Jcahnia leaves, which contain prussic acid, is often used instead of 

 ether, chloroform or benzine. 



Hoxo to set micro-lepidoptera : " If the insect is very small I hold 

 it by its legs between the thumb and finger of the left hand, whilst 

 I pierce it with the pin held between the thumb and finger of the 

 right hand ; if the insect is not very small I use a rough surface, 

 as a piece of blotting-paper, or piece of cloth, for it to lie upon 

 and prevent its slipping about, and then cautiously insert the point 

 of the pin in the middle of the thorax, as nearly as possible in a 

 vertical direction. As soon as the pin is fairly through the insect, 

 remove it to a piece of soft cork, and by pressing it in, push the 

 insect as far up the pin as is required. 



" For setting the insects I find nothing answers as well as a 

 piece of soft cork, papered with smooth paper, and with grooves 

 cut to admit the bodies. The wings are placed in the required 

 position by the setting needle, and are then retained in their places 

 by a wedge-shaped thin paper brace, placed over them till a square 

 brace of smooth card-boajd is placed over the ends of the wings." 

 Stainton. Pieces of plate glass are often used instead of card- 

 braces. Small slender insects pins No. 19 and 20, are made by 

 Edleston & Williams, Crown Court, Cheapside, London. 



DiPTERA. 



North American flies have been but little studied, though so 

 interesting and numerous. The different parts of the body vary 

 greatly, and often give easy characters for discrimination. Thus 

 the parts of the head, the form and disposition of the nervures 

 and the intespaces of the wings, give good' generic and specific 

 differences. .Their habits are very variable. Fresh water aquaria, 

 consisting of glass jars with a few vegetables to oxygenate the 



