PROCEEDINGS OF TllK ■nilRD ENTOMOLOGICAL ilEETiNG 1)71 



supplied with plenty of naphthaline. No general rules can be given 

 for the preservation of more biiUcy material such as wasps' nests. In 

 any case it is best to keep all such material away from light as far as 

 possible and to protect it with naphthaline. 



Spirit material may be kept in tubes or jars according to size, but 

 in any case should be properly labelled with full information written 

 with pencil or waterproof ink on labels ])laced inside the tubes or jars. 

 Labels gummed onto the outside of containers are very apt to drop 

 off or become illegible on account of fading or attacks of fish-insects. 

 Corked tubes are best kept on their sides if the corks are good, as they 

 should be ; if placed upright, the corks are apt to diy and shrink, so 

 that the spirit evaporates. Loss of spirit by leakage and evaporation 

 is always a trouble in the case of corked tubes and the best method of 

 storage is to remove the corks altogether, plug each tube with a wad 

 of tissue-paper (iwt cotton-wool), and place the tubes in a jar filled with 

 spirit. A layer of cotton-wool should be placed at the bottom of the 

 jar to prevent the tubes breaking. By this means all the specimens 

 of one species or group may be kept together so that they are readily 

 accessible when required, a large label placed inside the jar indicating 

 its contents at a glance. By this means also the spoiling of specimens 

 by loss of spirit is reduced to a minimum, as it is much easier to see 

 when the jars require refilling and less trouble to fill a few jars than 

 . many separate tubes. It is as well to go over the jars at regular intervals 

 to see whether any renewal of .spirit is required. For a working collec- 

 tion, it is impracticable to seal up specimens hermetically, and there 

 will always be some loss of spirit even in the best-fitting jars. Tops 

 that fit very well are apt to stick especially if the jars have not been 

 opened for some time ; to obviate this and reduce evaporation of spirit 

 in the case of less well-fitting jars, a little thick vaseline may be smeared 

 around the edge of the cover. All spirit specimens should be kept 

 in dark almirahs and not be exposed to light. 



Transmission of Specimens. 



A paper on collecting and preserving insects would not be complete 

 without a few words regarding the transmission of- insect specimens, 

 as every collector, especially in a country such as India, is sure at some 

 time to recjuire to send specimens away for identification, and it is 

 extremely annoying and unsatisfactory to find that cherished speci- 

 mens, possibly unique and irreplaceable, have been destroyed in trans- 

 mission. At Pusa we send out hundreds, sometimes thousands, of 

 specimens in the course of a year to correspondents in India, Europe, 



