1466 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



to the use of high-power hand lenses, and in such instances one must break off 

 a tarsus and mount it upon a slide in glycerin or Canada balsam for examination 

 under a compound microscope. 



It is not advisable to mount adult mosquitoes bodily on slides in any medium 

 whatever. They should not be preserved in alcohol or formalin, but should be 

 kept dry in vials. Of course they will rattle around somewhat, and there is 

 danger that the legs and the antennee will be lost ; therefore, if they are moved 

 from the vial after the collecting and killing, into pill boxes with cotton, they can. 

 be carried safely, or can be sent in the mails. Several of the pill boxes may be 

 placed inside a tight tin or wooden box and mailed with perfect security. 



A collection of mosquitoes should, however, not be kept in this way, provided 

 that it is intended as a study collection. The method which I have adopted, and 

 which is the one customarily used for small insects that are not too small for 

 hand-lens work, is the triangular-tag method. Take a sheet of stiff paper or very 

 thin cardboard, and cut a strip say tive-sixteenths or three-eighths of an inch 

 wide. Then from this strip, by slightly oblique cuts, cut a series of triangles that 

 will be pointed at the tip and a little less than an eighth of an inch wide at the 

 base. Through the base of the tag may be run an insect pin, and to the tip the 

 mosquito should be glued, white or yellow shellac being the best medium for the 

 gluing. The mosquito should be glued on its side, just behind one wing, so 

 that its back is away from the pin. This enables one readily, by holding the 

 point of the pin in one's hand, to examine with a lens, all legs, antennae, palpi, one 

 side, and the back. The tag should be pushed up on the pin until it is from 

 two-thirds to three-quarters of the length of the pin away from the point. To 

 the lower part of the pin should be attached a small label giving date, exact 

 locality, and name of the collector, and below this may be pinned another small 

 label bearing the name of the insect. 



Those who for some reason do not like the paper triangle method of mount- 

 ing, use very minute pins, made by Mueller in Vienna, and known as "minuten 

 insekten naedeln," which are sold by Queen & Co., Philadelphia, and other 

 large dealers in such things. These pins are so small and delicate that they must 

 be thrust through the thorax of the mosquito and into a little strip of cork, the 

 cork strip itself being pinned upon one of the larger and longer insect pins. 



Some collectors, instead of using the chloroform method of killing, prefer the 

 cyanide bottle. The cyanide bottle is made by taking a wide-mouthed flask, 

 putting a small lump of cyanide of potassium at the bottom, and covering it with 

 a layer of liquid plaster of Paris, which, when allowed to set, makes a complete 

 layer over and around the cyanide, and prevents the water that comes from the 

 deliquescence of the cyanide from injuring specimens that are placed in the vial, 

 but which at the same time is sufficiently porous to permit the escape of the 

 deadly cyanide fumes. Even with the layer of plaster of Paris, however, the 

 cyanide bottle will sometimes become wet, so that a bit of blotting-paper may 

 with advantage be inserted to cover the plaster of Paris, and to absorb the 

 superfluous moisture. A mosquito captured in one of these cyanide fiasks dies 

 very quickly, and is in good condition for dry mounting or for transfer to pill 

 boxes. The cyanide bottle is, preferably, stoppered with a cork stopper, but 

 rubber stoppers are also used. 



In collecting early stages of mosquitoes, it is only necessary to hav^e a supply 

 of bottles, a little coffee-strainer with a handle, and a large reading glass. Other 

 apparatus is cumbersome and unnecessary. I have a large reading-glass four 

 inches in diameter, with a strong handle, which I find very useful in examining 

 the surface of water-pools, especially for Anopheles larvae The dip strainer 

 used is an ordinary cheap coffee-strainer, which has been mounted upon a long 

 handle, so that one can reach out two or three feet from the shore and capture 

 larvae and pupae. Other large strainers with a fine mesh are sold at the hard- 



