[65] 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 



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Some prefer to piu the paper coutaining- the cyanide to the lower surface 

 of the cork. The latter should be rather short aud tapering toward 

 its lower end. It is longitudinally perforated through its center by a 



round hole just large enough to insert a 

 goose-quill, which is cut straight at the lower 

 end aud obliquely at its upper end. By 

 means of this goose-quill the specimens may 

 be introduced into the bottle without taking 

 off" the cork. This form of cyanide bottle 

 lasts for only one day's collecting, except in 

 cold weather, and in very warm weather it 

 is advisable to take two prepared bottles 

 along, so that the first used can be stowed 

 away as soon as the cyanide begins to 

 moisten the paper strips. Most insects are 

 quickly killed in such a bottle, but some 

 Coleoptera must be left in for five or six 

 hours, while others resist death for a still 

 longer time. This is especially true of the 

 Coleopterous families Curculionidae, Tro- 

 gositidfe, and Tenebrionidse. 



Submersion in alcohol will prove a satis- 

 factory method of killing these or other bee- 

 tles with similar vitality. 



Other Agents. — Prof. E. W. Claypole has 

 found the use of benzine or gasoline very 

 cheap and satisfactory for killing Lepidop- 

 tera, as the largest are at once killed 

 thereby without injury to their scales. 

 {Can. Unt., xix, p. 136.) He squirts it onto 

 the specimen within the net or in the oi^en 

 air by means of a druggist's dropping tube. 

 Hot water kills rapidly and leaves the specimens in good flexible 

 condition for mounting. The heads of large insects may be held for a 

 few moments in the water, while smaller sj)ecimens should first be 

 thrown into a corked bottle and the bottle submitted to heat. Where 

 the laurel grows its bruised leaves maybe used in place of cyamde; 

 they kill less quickly. The leaves of the Laurel-cherry {Prtinus lauro- 

 eerasus), a plant commonly grown in England for screens and hedges, 

 are also used for this purpose. 



Some collectors, with indifferent olfactory sense, moisten the cork of 

 their boxes with creosote. Its killing power lasts for several days. A 

 few whiff's from a cigar, when nothing else is at hand, will also kill 

 many of the more tender insects. 



Special directions for different orders. — A few brief direc- 

 tions for the sj)ecial treatment of different orders may be given. Oer- 

 25(54 5 



Fig. 93.— The cyanide bottle with 

 blotting-paper lining (original) . 



