COLLECTING AND PRESERVING TNSECTS BANKS. 



121 



sior and covering the top with stiff manila paper. The basket can 

 be tied across each end, lengthwise through the middle, and then 

 around the sides. The handle should be left on, and the address, as 

 well as the name of the sender, written plainly on the cover, and the 

 word ''care," in large letters, will do no harm. In sending insects 

 abroad by mail the package should be registered; if by express, use 

 a box with cover tied with plenty of strong twine, so that the custom 

 officers can examine without hammering or breaking the cover. 

 Some use a glass-top box for the inside box. In sending by mail, 

 never pack a small box on top of a larger one; it will break in the 

 larger box. 



In shipping alcoholic material, one vial may be placed in a wooden 

 or pasteboard mailing tube (fig. 177) manufactured for such purposes. 

 These are often lined with cork and have a screw top. The cotton 

 packing around the 

 vial should not be 

 crowded in too 

 tightly. When 

 many vials are to 

 be sent, each 

 should be wrapped 

 in a bit of soft 

 paper and then all 

 packed in cotton in 

 a stout wooden or 

 tin box; some cot- 

 ton wrapped out- 

 side these boxes 



will prevent break- ^^^IPv o 



age. A bit of cot- 

 ton placed in the 

 vial with specimens will wad up and shake back and forth in travel- 

 ing, and so destroy fragile specimens. 



Never send insects in a letter; it can be done over and over again, 

 but it is risking the specimens. In sending living specimens use a 

 tight box and do not punch holes in it; the insect will not suffocate. 

 Sometimes it is necessary to put food in with the living insect, as a 

 caterpillar sent for a considerable distance, but usually anything 

 inserted with the specimens will simply help to kill them. The pupa 

 may be shipped in dry moss. Postal regulations affecting natural- 

 history specimens vary from time to time; usually such specimens are 

 sent as fourth class, 1 cent an ounce. Many foreign countries have 

 a parcels-post regulation, which enables one to send large packages 

 cheaply. When shipping papered specimens a long distance, a little 

 flaked naphthalene sprinkled over them, or, better, in the packing, may 



Fig. 177.— A maiung-ture: o. Tuns; 6, cover. 



