CHAPTER X 



COLLECTING AND LABORATORY METHODS 



IN concluding, it may be well to touch on a few 

 points concerning the best methods of collecting 

 and preserving specimens of the different stages, and 

 also of collecting and rearing living specimens. Any 

 student who wishes to do extensive work should run 

 a mosquito laboratory ; luckily, this is neither difficult 

 nor expensive. Those in charge of mosquito exter- 

 mination in towns, as well as inspectors of health, 

 should also possess collections of the different stages 

 of the local forms. 



To begin with the outdoor collecting. All the 

 apparatus which we used in this was a long-handled 

 tin, or, what was better, an enamelled-ware dipper, 

 some pint jars, a number of homeopathic vials or 

 small test tubes with cotton plugs, and a long, wide- 

 mouthed medicine dropper with a strong bulb. We 

 did not use a net, finding it apt to kill or injure the 

 specimens ; however, if the specimens are to be killed, 

 a light net may be used, though it is apt to rub or 

 break them. When we were out for adults, we 

 would go and sit quietly in some locality where it 

 was thought these would be found. They would 

 come, alight on our hands and arms, and bite, then 

 by quietly placing the vial over them they were 

 caught. The vial was plugged with cotton. If 



194 



