92 THE CLASS OF INSECTS. 



After the insects have been thoroughly dried they should not 

 be placed in the cabinet until after having been in quarantine 

 to see that no eggs of Dermestes or 

 Anthrenus, etc., have been deposited 

 on them. 



For preserving dried insects in the 

 cabinet Laboulbene recommends plac- 

 ing a rare insect (if a beetle or any 

 Fig. 71. other hard insect) in water for an hour 



until the tissues be softened. If soiled, an insect can be 

 cleansed under water with a fine hair-pencil, then submit it to 

 a bath of arseniated alcohol, or, better, alcohol with corrosive 

 sublimate. If the insect becomes prune-colored, it should be 

 washed in pure alcohol several times. This method will do 

 for the rarest insects ; the more common ones can be softened 

 on wet sand, and then the immersion in the arseniated alcohol 

 suffices. After an immersion of an hour or a quarter of an 

 hour, according to the size of the insect, the pin is not affected 

 by the corrosive sublimate, but it is better to unpin the insect 

 previous to immersion, and then pin it Avhen almost dr}-. 



For cleaning insects ether or benzine is excellent, applied 

 with a hair-pencil ; though care should be taken in using these 

 substances which are very inflammable. 



After the specimens are placed in the cabinet, they should be 

 farther protected from destructive insects by placing in the 

 drawers or boxes pieces of camphor wrapped in paper perfo- 

 rated by pin-holes, or bottles containing sponges saturated with 

 benzine. The collection should be carefully examined every 

 month ; the presence of insects can be detected by the dust 

 beneath them. Where a collection is much infested with 

 destructive insects, benzine should be poured into the bottom 

 of the box or drawer, when the fumes and contact of the ben- 

 zine with their bodies will kill them. The specimens them- 

 selves should not be soaked in the benzine if possible, as it 

 renders them brittle. 



Insect-cabinet. For permanent exhibition, a cabinet of shal- 

 low drawers, protected by doors, is most useful. A drawer 

 may be eighteen by twenty inches square, and two inches deep 

 in the clear, and provided with a tight glass cover. For constant 



