REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST 211 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



keep the food plants fresh. For this reason as well as for the greatest safety of tha 

 specimens they are very much preferable to cardboard boxes. 



10. When sending specimens da not punch holes through the box for the insects 

 to breathe through. These are quite unnecessary and as a general thing cause the 

 death of the specimens. 



It will be easily understood how very inconvenient it is in an office with a limited 

 staff, but with a very large daily correspondence, when, as frequently happens, four 

 cr five packets of insects or plants arrive by the same mail without any name on them 

 of the sender and without any letter stating what information is desired. Parcels 

 when sent through the post offices are very seldom postmarked and all that can be 

 done is to hold them over for some days and then compare the writing of the address 

 with letters which have been received during the past week. This means, frequently, 

 in the case of specimens of important pests which we want to know about or concern- 

 ing which an immediate reply should be given, looking through about one hundred 

 letters. The inconvenience of caring for these parcels is also considerable. Living 

 specimens have to be unpacked and fed and provisional numbers and labels put on 

 each, so that they may be recognized in case letters turn up afterwards. Notwith- 

 standing every care to keep these parcels straightened out there are every year 

 many which come to hand which can never be acknov/ledged, either because the par- 

 cels have nothing on them by which we can associate them with letters or because the 

 letters are not signed. 



In addition to specimens which are sent in by farmers, fruit-growers and gar- 

 deners, many insects and plants are sent in for identification by those who are study- 

 ing natural history in a more or less scientific manner. An excellent sign for get- 

 ting better results in farming, is that, many of the younger farmers and fruit- 

 growers in the country are now making reference collections of injurious insects and 

 weeds, so that they may become more familiar with these enemies from which they 

 every year suffer so much. These collections are continually being received! for 

 identification and classification by the officers of the Division of Entomology and 

 Botany. Similar collections are sent in by teachers and other students. 



The study of entomology in Canada is now receiving a good deal more attention 

 than heretofore. Each season sees new collectors in the field and much of the material 

 collected is sent to Ottawa for identification. Unfortunately, however, many of 

 these specimens received here are more or less injured from lack of knowledge as to 

 the proper way to pack, or of care in doing up the parcels. It is a constant matter 

 of surprise to see how few of even experienced entomologists, know how to pack speci- 

 mens for sending by mail. A frequent disappointment experiv^nced at the Division is 

 to find on opening a box, valuable specimens which have been entirely ruined through 

 the neglect of some small or commonseuse precaution in sending the specimens. Mail 

 matter received at large centres must of necessity be handled quickly and a moment's 

 thought will convince any one that a box containing specimens of fragile pinned in- 

 sects, Avrapped only in the paper on which the address is written, has very little 

 chance of reaching its destination with the contents intact. Many such consignments 

 come to us with nearly every specimen broken. 



There are several good ways of packing boxes of pinned specimens. The box con- 

 taining the insects firmly pinned, the pins being forced into the cork at the bottom 

 with a pair of forceps, can be wrapped lightly with cotton batting, or some other light 

 elastic material, and the whole placed inside a larger box of wood or strong cardboard. 

 The inside box should be wrapped neatly in thin paper and tied up to keep out dust. 

 The elastic packing between the two boxes will protect the specimens from being 

 broken by the jarring in the mails. Another excellent way which may be used when 

 it is not convenient to obtain an outside box of the right size, and indeed is the 

 method most in use by entomologists, is to simply surround the box of specimens after 

 wrapping it in paper, with a good supply of cotton batting, hay, straw, excelsior or 



