PHOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 963 



G and H. A number of these outlined and cut out for packets, but 

 not folded, can be kept ready to be made up into packets as they are 

 wanted. 



" The pattern for packets should be of rough paper so that it will 

 last a long time, and if some coloured paper be used for it the pattern 

 will not get pasted together for a packet in mistake for one outlined 

 from it. 



" The lower sketch [fig. 2] shows an open completed packet. 



" Diagram 5 shows an arrangement of three sizes of packets, say 

 in the uppermost tier in a small biscuit-tin, a space in the middle being 

 conveniently left for naphthahne. 



" Each packet is numbered and a list of contents pasted on the 

 outside of the tin. Finally the tin is closed against damp and insects 

 by a strip of 1-inch adhesive plaster all round the edge of the closed 

 cover." 



Many insects, however, are not suitable for storage in ordinary 

 envelopes, grasshoppers and stick-insects, for example, and these may 

 be wrapped in tissue-paper rolled m ordinary unglazed paper. Large 

 beetles may be packed in dry saw-dust in which a httle powdered naph- 

 thaline has been mixed, or they may be made up in httle packets of 

 thin paper and kept in a box with naphthahne. When saw-dust is 

 used, it should not be that obtained fi-om any resinous wood. 



The same procedure may be adopted with large bugs and, generally 

 speaking, when accommodation in the collecting store-box becomes 

 or is hkely to be cramped, space in it can be reserved for small and 

 delicate specimens, all large insects being disposed of in papers or 

 saw-dust. 



Scale-insects may be collected and kept as dry specimens, according 

 to the siz§ of the foodplant, in envelopes or boxes. In such cases a 

 parallel series in spii?it is useful. 



Insects kept dry in glass tubes should have the inside of the cork 

 naphthalined before being closed up, to prevent development of mould. 



Relaxing is the process of softening dried insects for the purpose 

 of manipulating them at some interval after they have stiffened subse- 

 quent to the vanishing of rigor mortis. It is usually effected by exposing 

 them to a damp atmosphere, by placing them in a closed box (Plate 159. 

 fig. 4) on damp sand or blotting-paper, a few drops of carbohc acid 

 being added to prevent the growth of mould. The tune taken to 

 relax an insect in this way varies with the size of the insect and 

 the temperature, the time being extended directly by the size of the 

 insect and lowness of the temperature. In warm weather small 



