riOTl COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 





insects and specimens showing their work, and alcoholic material, to 

 blocks of soft wood. These are then arranged in the display cases. 

 The advantage claimed for the system is facility in transferring and 

 rearranging the exhibits. This method is somewhat cumbersome, 

 and in making and handling economic exhibits I have found pinning 

 specimens directly to the cork lining of the box, as already described, 

 to be entirely satisfactory. A biologic exhibit should be carefully 

 planned beforehand, and when once completed is permanent and does^ 

 not require rearrangement, as is frequently necessary in a systematic 

 collection, owing to the constant changes in classification. The only^ 

 alteration necessary is a renewal of specimens which have become 

 injured, or faded by exposure to light. 



Labeling Collections. — I have already fully discussed the subject of 

 labehng insects before placing them in their final resting place in the 

 collection. In the collection certain additional labels are required,, 

 viz, labels for the order, family, subfamily, genus, species, and some- 

 times variety. The label for the order should be placed above the 

 first species in the collection, and should be in large type, as should also 

 be the name of the family, which is to be placed above the first species 

 in the family. The genus label should be in prominent type, somewhat 

 smaller than the family label, and should be placed at the head of the 

 genus. Custom varies as to placing the label of the species. In my 

 practice I have adopted the plan of placing the label below the series. 

 of specimens representing the species. Some entomologists reverse^ 

 this plan and place the label above the series of specimens. Others^ 

 recommend pinning the label to the first and best-determined specimen 

 of the series. This has the advantage of always keeping the label with 

 the species and i^reventing the danger of mistake or confusion of the^ 

 latter. In the case of large insects, however, this plan has the dis- 

 advantage that the label can not be seen except by taking out th& 

 specimen, and, on the whole, the plan which I have adopted of placing- 

 the label below the series of specimens is j)referable, but may be supple- 

 mented by the other, as in addition to the independent label, one of 

 the specimens should have a label pinned with it. The labels should be 

 neatly written on blanks printed for the purpose ; but a better x^lan, per- 

 haps, and one which I have followed, where possible, in labeling the 

 national collection, is to cut the names neatly from a catalogue of the 

 insects, which will furnish all the labels from order to species, and fasten 

 them with short, inconsx)icuous pins in their proper places in the col- 

 lection. Where it is not desired to keep the collection as compact as. 

 possible, or where one has limited space, I would advise labeling the 

 species, not only with the recognized name, but also with the synonyms^ 

 This requires some space, and will hardly be followed except in public 

 collections. It is also desirable to arrange together, and label as such,, 

 the varieties of any given species. The appearance of the collection 

 will depend largely on the uniformity of the labeling, and too much 

 care can not be exercised in this respect. 



