COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS, 



93 



use, boxes made of thin, well-seasoned wood, with tight-fitting 

 covers, are indispensable. P'or Coleoptera, Dr. Leconte recom- 

 mends that they be twelve by nine inches (inside measurement). 

 For the larger Lepidoptera a little larger box is preferable. 

 Others prefer boxes made in the form of books, wliich may be 

 put away like books on the shelves of the cabinet, tliough the 

 cover of the box is apt to be in the way. 



The boxes and drawers should be lined with cork cut into 

 thin slips for soles ; such slips come from the cork-cutter about 

 twelve by four inches square, and an eighth of an inch thick. A 

 less expensive substitute is paper stretched ui)on a frame. Mr. 

 E. S. Morse has given in the American Naturalist (vol. I, p. 

 156) a plan which is very neat and useful for lining boxes in ;; 

 large museum, and which 

 are placed in horizontal 

 show-cases (Fig. 72). "A 

 box is made of the re- 

 quired depth, and a light 

 frame is fitted to its in- 

 terior. Upon the upper 

 and under surfaces of this 

 frame, a sheet of white 

 paper (drawing or log- 

 paper answers the pur- 

 pose) is securely glued. rig. 72. 

 The paper, having been previously dampened, in drying con- 

 tracts and tightens like a drum-head. The frame is then 

 secured about one-fourth of an inch from the bottom of the 

 box, and the pin is forced down througli the tliicknesses of 

 paper, and if the bottom of the box be of soft pine, the point 

 of the pin may be slightly forced into it. It is thus firmly held 

 at two or three different points, and all lateral movements arc 

 prevented. Other advantages are secured by this arrangement 

 besides firmness ; Avhen the box needs cleaning or fumigation, 

 the entire collection may be removed by taking out the frame, 

 or camphor, tobacco, or other material can be placed on the 

 bottom of the box, and concealed from sight. The annexed 

 figure represents a transverse section of a portion of the side 

 and bottom of the box with the frame. A, A, box ; B, frame ; 



