PLEA FOR INVESTIGATION OF INDIAN CULICIDIZ7. 601 
Chloroform is useless for the purpose, as the insects recover after setting, 
but a scrap of blotting paper moistened with dilute hydrocyanic acid, and 
slipped into the pill box or bottle, answers very well, 
PRESERVING THE INSECT. 
Tt is of course very easy to mount mosquitoes as microscopic specimens 
in balsam, or to preserve them in bottles in spirit ; but suck specimens are 
absolutely useless for identification, as their coloration depends entirely on the 
reflection of light from the scales with which they are clothed, and is lost 
if they be immersed in balsam or any other fluid. 
For identification, the insects must be pinned as described below :— 
Requisites— 
1, No, 20 Insect pins: (Obtainable from D. F, Tayler & Co., New 
Hall Works, Birmingham). A quarter of an ounce, costing 
about half a crown, will last a long time. 
2, Card dises—cut from rather thin cardboard by means of a 20-bore 
gun-punch. 
3, Asmall flat piece of cork, covered with white paper, on which to 
place the insects while pinning them. 
4, Ordinary toilet pins of medium size. 
5, An insect box.—Any small wooden box, not less than 13 inches 
deep, may be utilized for the purpose by covering the inside of 
the bottom with a sheet of ‘‘cork carpet,’ cork, or solah pith. 
If intended for transmission by post, they must be very strongly 
made, If intended for receiving a permanent collection, they 
should have dust-proof lids and be made as nearly air-tight 
as may be. In any casea small muslin bag, full of naphthalin 
or camphor, should be securely pinned into a corner of the box so 
that it cannot move, and it is a good additional precaution to 
paint the entire inside with strong spirituous solution of per- 
chloride of mercury. 
TO PIN THE MOSQUITO. 
1, Take a disc and write on it date and place of collection. “ House,” 
“bites” “sylvan”—or other information; also a distinguishing 
letter if there be several species, 
2. Place the disc, writing upwards, on the piece of cork and then take an 
insect pin in a pair of forceps close to the point and transfix the 
disc near the middle, 
3, Place the mosquito on the cork on its back, 
4, Take a pin, with the disc on it,in a pair of forceps near the head 
and, holding it so, pass the point through the thorax of the insect 
between the roots of the legs from venter to dorsum, 
5, Pass a common pin through the disc, near the edge, and force the 
point of this into the cork at the bottom of the box, 
