384 



FOREST ENTOMOLOGY. 



are sold in penny packets, and which form a very good medium for 

 staining scale-insects. Then with the aid of a large but weak lens 

 lift them out of the stain, on the tip of a woodcock's feather, and 

 place them on to a prepared cover-glass. Arrange them as carefully 

 as possible, and absorb the moisture with a clean-cut portion of blot- 

 ting-paper. Then the specimens may be allowed to remain under oil 

 of cloves for a short time, which may in turn be replaced by a drop 

 of xylol, and this again further replaced with thin balsam and xylol. 

 The latter may be allowed to remain under an inverted glass for a 



Fig. 349. Proboscis ofhoney-bee. 

 (From photo by A. Flatters.) 



Fig. 350. Tongue of house-fli/. 

 (By A. Flatters.) 



short time, and then finally mounted on to a glass-slip by pressing 

 the cover-glass with the scales into the balsam on the slip. 



This method may be termed mounting the object on the cover- 

 glass, and is certainly, for this class of work, better than mounting 

 on the slip. All workers, more especially beginners, know full well 

 that when an object is mounted on the slip and the cover-glass after- 

 wards applied, the valuable object has often been found outside the 

 cover-glass in the superfluous balsam, so that mounting carefully the 

 opposite way generally gives better results. 



