86 HOW TO COLLECT 



In jEdes, jEdeomyia, and Uranotmnia the palpi are short in botk 

 sexes, but the plumose $ smtennae will separate $ from ? . 



Method of Collecting and Killing. 



Mosquitoes may be captured in the open ; an entomologist's 

 collecting-net is then necessary, from which the insects can be 

 transferred to gl?.ss-bottomed pill-boxes. In doing this great care 

 must be taken not to pull off the legs. Inside buildings mosquitoes 

 can easily be captured on walls and windows in the pill-boxes them- 

 selves. Specimens are, however, best obtained in good condition by 

 breeding them ; this can readily be done by keeping the larvae or 

 pu23se in a basin or jar of water covered over with book- muslin. In 

 any ca'-e mosquitoes are best collected alive in the glass-bottomed 

 pill-boxes {sm p. 51). Not more than a single specimen should be 

 put alive in each box. IV) kill the mosquitoes the box is opened a 

 fraction of an inch on one side, and placed for a few minutes in 

 a cyanide killing- jar {see p. 51), which must, of course, be closed. 

 They may also be killed by tobacco smoke or chloroform. If cyanide 

 or tobacco smoke is used, they should not be left in the fumes more 

 than ten minutes. As soon as the insects are quite dead they 

 should be turned out on to a sheet of cork-carpet ; they should be 

 touched as little as possible, the manipulations necessary for arrang- 

 ing the wings and legs being performed with a needle. 



To Pin a Mosquito. 



Take a card disc («), and write on its underside the data connected 

 with the specimen to be pinned, such as (1) name of loc(dity. 

 including altitude if known; (2) date — day, month, year — thus, 

 6.3.06; (3) collectors name \ (4) any remark of interest^ e.g. 

 " Most troublesome species in district," or attach these lemarks 

 to the label {h). Place the disc on a sheet of cork-carpet ; then 

 pick up one of the tine No. 20 pins (c), and thrust about one-thiid 

 of an inch of it through the disc. The pin must be held with the 

 forceps near the point, and upiight, otherwise it will bend. Lay 

 the specimen on its hack (tiu-ning it over with the aid of a needle). 



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