24 MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
improved by fastening on the back with shellac a piece of another 
butterfly which matches it in color. 
For handling insects, use smooth broad-tipped forceps. If these 
cannot be purchased at a store where naturalists’ supplies are kept, 
Forceps for Handling Insects. 
a pair may be made by an expert out of hard rubber or tortoise-shell. 
I have known a pair of tin candy tongs to answer for forceps after 
5 
the tips were made flat and smooth. 
PREPARING LARVA AND PUP. 
Collections where larvee and pup are added are enhanced two- 
fold in their value from the standpoint of the naturalist. The weird 
and varied forms with the remarkable coloring of some of the spe- 
cies makes them exceedingly interesting when taken in connec- 
tion with the fully developed insect. When it is remembered that 
the active life of a butterfly is but a very few days at the most, and 
that by far the greater part of its existence is passed in the larval 
state, the state when it is directly injurious to man’s interests, one 
can readily appreciate the importance of studying the insects at this 
stage. Larvee are not easily prepared to look well in the cabinet, and 
to make them look at all natural requires painstaking labor. 
One method, which has been used with considerable success, 1s to 
inflate and dry the skin of the larva after the contents have been 
squeezed out through the anal opening. This is done by first killing 
the larva in the poison jar, then laying it on soft paper or cloth and, 
beginning at the head, rolling it gently toward the posterior end, 
under a round lead-pencil wound with soft canton-flannel or blotting- 
paper. When the skin is quite empty, insert a straw into the open- 
ing and gently inflate the skin, at the same time turning it round over 
