72 BULLETIN 67, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and mount in xylol balsam. Wings treated by this method may be 

 successfully photographed. Mr. Hall, in Entomological News, 1902, 

 describes his methods of bleaching and photographing the wings as 

 follows: "The wings are first moistened with alcohol, and then put 

 in eau de javelle solution until thoroughly bleached. They are then 

 removed to fresh water for five or ten minutes to remove the lime 

 solution, thus preventing deposits in drying. Remove the wings by 

 immersing a piece of paper in the water and floating the wing upon it, 

 much in the. manner of mounting seaweeds. The paper and wings 

 are then removed together, and the surplus moisture removed with 

 blotting paper. Lay a clean piece of paper over the wing, and place 

 between the leaves of a book and dry under pressure. When dry 

 the wings separate easily from the paper, and may be fastened to a 

 sheet of glass with an atom of shellac. Place the sheet of glass in 

 an ordinary photographic printing frame with a sheet of sensitive 

 paper, and place in the sun until the paper turns dark and bronzy. 

 On removing the paper the outline and veins of the wings are seen 

 in exquisite detail in white against a dark ground." The wings of 

 other insects can be used without preparation. Velox or any of the 

 developing papers may be used, and then the work can be done in 

 the evening. 



Mr. Busck, for the Microlepidoptera, uses a very neat and success- 

 ful method. The wing is carefully broken from the body, and then 

 placed in a shallow dish of alcohol. Then it is floated out on a glass 

 slide, and by the use of a fine badger-hair brush under a lens he 

 removes the scales, occasionally dipping it in the alcohol to wash off 

 the loosened scales. When clean it is floated on the center of the 

 slide, and when about dry is covered with a three-fourths inch cover- 

 glass. A slide label 1 inch square, with a circular hole one-half inch 

 in diameter, is pasted down over the cover-glass, thus securing it to 

 the slide. This one-half inch hole could be cut by a punch, but Mr. 

 Busck moistens a one-half inch cover-glass, sticks it to the gummed 

 side of the label, and then after pressing it down cuts it from above 

 by a pin point or the tip of a sharp knife blade. 



PRESERVATION OF MATERIAL IN LIQUIDS. 



Alcohol. — Alcohol is the most useful and convenient liquid for 

 preserving the immature stages of many insects, and for spiders, 

 mites, centipedes, etc. Moreover, it is of increasing use in the 

 preservation of much other material. Many of the Neuropteroid 

 insects, such as mayflies, Perlidse, Psocidge, are well kept in vials of 

 alcohol. And many Orthoptera, as cockroaches and earwigs, and 

 some Neuroptera, as dragonfhes and scorpion flies; some Diptera, 

 as crane-flies, and a great many Hemiptera and Coleoptera are as 



