88 THE KNTOMOLOQI8T. 



to transfer this tubed cork from one bottle to another as occasion 

 requires; 



The Support. — Never stick a pin into any beetle if you can 

 avoid it is a good maxim — in other words, mount all except the 

 very largest species on cards ; Carabus, Dytiscus, and Lucanus 

 may, I suppose, be pinned, but I would rather have them on 

 cards. Choose a thick card, as it does not buckle, and is firmer 

 on the pin. Decide on about four standard sizes, and do not 

 vary from them ; a series well mounted on cards of the same 

 size and at the same height on the pins is a thing of beauty, but 

 on cards of different sizes and at different heights is a disgusting 

 sight — I have many of them, I regret to say, put up in my in- 

 experienced days. 



Following the plan adopted in many museums, I have 

 punches made of the four standard sizes, but these are not 

 really necessary, as with a pair of compasses, a fiat ruler, and a 

 pencil, the cards can to all intents and purposes be cut the 

 same size, but it is necessary to keep a card accurately ruled as 

 a gauge. 



One has now to decide whether to join the long card or short 

 card brigade. A long card placed at the top of a long pin has, I 

 think, the best appearance, but the extra room required is a 

 great drawback, and unless one's cabinet is a forty-drawer one, 

 I should advise the adoption of a short card placed at the top of 

 a " point," i. e. a pin without a head, there is nothing then to 

 interfere with the use of a powerful short focus lens. I use a 

 Steinheil magnifying eight times, and one magnifying twelve, 

 but with the former the characters of nearly all species except 

 the smallest can be made out, and it is seldom necessary to 

 employ a compound microscope. 



(To be continued.) 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF MEGACHILE 



FROM INDIA. 



By p. Cameron. 



Megachile nicevillii, sp. nov. 

 Black ; the head and thorax covered with snow-white pubescence, 

 the dorsal abdominal segments with similar pubescence, the scopa 

 snow-white ; wings hyaline, the nervures and stigma black ; the first 

 recurrent nervure received two-thirds of the length of the first trans- 

 verse cubital nervure from the latter, the second clearly separated 

 from the second transverse cubital. Mandibles bidentate, the apical 

 tooth longer than it is wide at the base, gradually narrowed towards 

 the apex, which is rounded ; the second broad, bluntly rounded. ? . 

 Length, 7 mm. ; breadth, 2 mm. 



