Collecting and Laboratory Methods 197 



the hole to be held closed by a rubber band. Then 

 when one reaches into the cage the bag may be 

 slipped up over the wrist, and the chance of escape of 

 insects lessened. The breeding jar should contain a 

 dish of water and some fruit. Fresh fruit moulds and 

 is apt to kill the captives; dried dates and figs will 

 not mildew and are quite satisfactory. I suppose any 

 sweet, dried fruit will do. Mosquitoes which are 

 desired to lay should be put singly into any wide- 

 mouthed bottle or an ordinary glass with a little 

 water in the bottom and the top closed with cheese- 

 cloth or a cotton plug. 



Parts of adults to be investigated in detail are ad- 

 vantageously mounted on glass slides. Wings are 

 best examined dry, in a ring made with asphaltum 

 on a slide by the aid of a small camel's-hair brush. 

 The wing, or wings, should be placed within the 

 circle and the cover glass placed on when the as- 

 phaltum has dried so that it is barely sticky, and will 

 not run. Legs, antennae, etc., should be immersed 

 for a little while in alcohol, then preferably in car- 

 bolic acid for a short time, then mounted in balsam 

 or xylol-balsam. The object may be placed in posi- 

 tion on a slide, the liquids applied in succession and 

 absorbed by blotting-paper, and the balsam finally 

 put on without moving the specimen. Adults de- 

 sired for dissection should preferably be examined 

 fresh; if this is impossible, they should be placed in 

 weak alcohol or ten per cent, formalin ; I prefer the 

 latter, since the parts remain more pliable and shrink 

 less. Some say that formalin specimens are apt to 

 spoil, but none of mine have done so, and I still 



