26 COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 



panied by the insects that produce them are very desirable. 

 They may be reared by simply placing the mature galls in 

 pill-boxes. 



The larva of the saw fly (Fig. 27, a) closely resembles a 

 caterpillar having several pairs of abdominal legs. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



Butterflies are easily distinguished from moths by their 

 knobbed antennas. In the sphinges, or hawk-moths, the feelers 

 are thickened in the middle ; in the ritoths they are filiform and 

 often pectinated like feathers. Lepidoptera have also been 

 divided into three large groups, called Diurnal, Crepuscular 

 and Nocturnal, since butterflies fly in the sunshine alone, most 

 sphinges in the twilight, while the moths are generally night- 

 fliers, though many of them fly in the daytime, thus showing 

 that the distinctions are somewhat artificial. 



The larvae of butterflies and moths are called caterpillars. 

 A good method of preserving larvae dry, adopted at Dresden, 

 Fig. 28. is to squeeze out the intes- 



tines through a hole made 

 near the anal extremity of 

 the larva, then to insert a 

 fine straw, after which it 

 may be put in a glass vase, 

 itself placed in a tin vessel 

 and held over a lamp ; the 

 Cabbage Butterfly. larval skin is blown while 



suspended over the lamp, by which the skin dries faster. It 

 may be done with a small tube or blow-pipe fixed at the end of a 

 bladder, held under the arm or between the knees, so as to leave 

 the hands at liberty ; and the straw which is inserted into the 

 body of the larva may be fastened by a cross-pin stuck through 

 the skin, and thus retained in its proper position throughout 

 the process of blowing. The small larvae, such as those of the 

 Tineae, may be put alive into a hot bottle, baked until they 

 swell to the proper extent and dry, when they can be pinned 



