PRESKRVATION OF LARV/E 15Y INFLATION, 'i-iS 



would never have been a moth. We can speak feelingly, 

 having had this experience only to-day. VVlien young larvae 

 differ very much from the adult form, it is desirable to 

 preserve them before they have lost their early markings. In 

 this stage they require especial care, as the tender skin is 

 liable to swell unnaturally. Small larvae, requiring a very 

 fine lube, can often be attached without the use of a spring, 

 simply by pressing the skin carefidly to the tube, and 

 letting it stand a minute before inflating. In this case there 

 is rather more trouble in getting the larva off the tube ; it 

 should, therefore, be pushed in only just far enough to hold 

 it firmly. x'Vvoid fingering the larvae skins more than abso- 

 lutely necessary ; it is apt to rub the hairs off the hairy 

 larvaB, and bruise the skins of the smooth ; forceps should 

 in this case come before fingers. Liparis chrysorrhcpa does 

 not turn out so well as some ; but even this dreaded larva 

 can be managed with so little contact with the fingers that 

 the operator will probably escape without suffering pain from 

 the barbed hairs. Anyone who has spent an afternoon in the 

 society of Cossus ligniperda will be astonished to find how 

 much can be done with very little fingering. It would of 

 course be a great saving of time to have both hands at 

 liberty during the drying : this could be managed by 

 dispensing with the ball, and connecting the free end of the 

 valve-tube with the nozzle of a pair of bellows by a piece of 

 india-rubber tubing ; the bellows could be worked with the 

 foot ; a spring should be inserted between the handles to 

 make them open again after compression. 



We hope the explanations given have been sufficiently 

 clear to put one who has never attempted the work into the 

 way of doing it satisfactorily, and certainly at little cost ; 

 whilst those who are skilled will perhaps be glad to practise 

 a simple and harmless mode of inflation. The pressure- 

 bottle is not a new invention, though newly applied and 

 somewhat modified : it is used by microscopists for injecting 

 small animals. 



We now end with a caution and an apology : for the 

 former — when you are about to imcork the bottle be careful 

 not to strike the plate of metal against the side of the bottle, 

 or you will injure the valve, and periiaps break it; for the 

 latter — we must greatly have offended eutomolo;.,MC;il ears by 



2i 



