REARING LARVAE. 



95 



per folded into a triangular form with the edges overlapping. 

 Put up thus, multitudes can be packed away in tin boxes, and 

 will bear transportation to any distance. In tropical climates, 

 chests lined with tin should be made to contain the insect- 

 boxes, which can thus be preserved against the ravages of 

 white ants, etc. 



In sending live larvae by mail, they should be inclosed in lit- 

 tle tin boxes, and in sending dry specimens, the box should be 

 light and strong, and directions given at the post-office to 

 stamp the box lightly. In sending boxes by express they 

 should be carefully packed in a larger box, having an inter- 

 space of two inches, which can be filled in tightly with hay or 

 crumpled bits of paper. Beetles can be wrapped in pieces of 

 soft paper. Labels for alcoholic specimens should consist 

 of parchment with the locality, date of capture, and name of 

 collector written in ink. A temporary label of firm paper with 

 the locality, etc., written with a pencil, will last for several 

 years. 



Preservation of Larvae. Alcoholic specimens of insects, in all 

 stages of growth, are very useful. Few collections contain al- 

 coholic specimens of the adult insect. This is a mistake. Many 

 of the most important characters are effaced during the drying 

 process, and for purposes of general study alcoholic speci- 

 mens, even of Bees, Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Dragon-flies are 

 very necessary. 



Larvce, generally, may be well preserved in vials or bottles 

 of alcohol. They should first be put into whiskey, and then 

 into alcohol. If placed in the latter first, they shrivel and 

 become distorted. Mr. E. Burgess preserves caterpillars with 

 the colors unchanged, by immersing them in boiling water 

 thirty or forty seconds, and then placing them in equal parts 

 of alcohol and water. It is well to collect larvae and pupae 

 indiscriminately, even if we do not know their adult forms ; we 

 can approximate to them, and in some cases tell very exactly 

 what they must be. 



REARING LARVAE. More attention has been paid to rearing 

 Caterpillars than the young of any other suborder of insects, 

 and the following remarks apply more particularly to them, but 



