28 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 



Fig. 29. 



"winter nil cages containing larvae be placed in front of a "win- 

 dow facing the east or northeast, so that the inmates may be 

 ■kept as cool as possible. 



When the moth is fairly out of the pupa, as remarked by 

 Mr. Sanborn, their wings often fail to properly expand, on 

 account of the want of moisture, "the insect being unable to 

 expand its wings in a heated, dry room. He has avoided this 

 difficulty by placing the insect just emerged, or about to come 

 forth, beneath a bell-glass, within which he had placed moist- 

 ened pieces of bibulous paper." 



By taking advantage of the habit of many tree-feeding cat- 

 erpillars of changing to pupae (pupating) in the soil close to 

 the trunk of the tree, many rare moths can with little trouble 

 be raised from the chrysalides thus found. As the Rev. Joseph 

 Greene (The Insect Hunter's Com- 

 panion, London, 1870) advises, the 

 dirt around the trunk should be dug 

 up with a trowel, and carefully exam- 

 ined for chrysalides. He adds that 

 '•pupae may be found almost anywhere 

 and everywhere, under moss on large 

 stones and bowlders, in the decayed 

 stumps of old trees, behind the ..loose 

 bark on palings, between dead leaves, 

 under moss on banks, etc., etc." 



In studying the interesting family of 

 Tineidce (Fig. 29), Stainton remarks that "the elongated wings, 

 the slender body and the long or very long fringes to the wings, 

 are characters by which the Tineidae may generally be recog- 

 nized at once ; and the development of the palpi and their 

 variety in form and structure, offer most tangible grounds for 

 .separating the greater number of the genera. Indeed, if the 

 student will look at the head of a species to see whether it is 

 hairy or smooth, if he will then notice the palpi, whether the 

 maxillary palpi are developed and to what extent, and whether 

 the labial palpi are slender, ascending or drooping, whether the 

 second joint is densely clothed with scales, or bears a long pro- 

 truding tuft, and if he will farther notice the form of the hind 

 wrngs, which arc either well rounded or very pointed, or in- 

 dented towards the tip, he will be perfectly surprised to see 



