ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



21 



.■I:!' I 



The larvae are taken at various stages and killed with fames referred to below or by 

 dropping into hot water or into water and alcohol. They may be * blown ' as follows ; 

 snip off the anal end, empty by repeated gentle rollings with a lead-pencil from the head 

 backwards, then blow up through a straw inserted in the opening, tie to keep the air in, 

 and dry. Or they may be preserved in alcohol by putting them first into a 20 per cent. 

 solution in water, the next day in a 40 or 50 per cent, solution, the next day into a 60 or 

 75 per cent, solution. They will keep indefinitely in a 75 per cent, or stronger solution. 

 The more gradually the strength of the alcohol is raised the better the form and marking 

 will be retained. If put at once into strong alcohol, soft bodied insects are shrivelled out 

 of recognition. 



Frequently parasites may be discov- 

 ered in or upon (living) insects. These 

 should be carefully observed aDd speci- 

 mens of them kept. 



Butterflies and moths [Lepidoptera 

 from Leyis a scale and pteron a wing, 

 the wings being more or less covered 

 with scales or microscopic feathers 

 which give them their markings) what- 

 ever way captured, commonly with a 

 net when in the open field, are trans- 

 ferred to a bottle or tin box and 

 there killed with fumes of chloroform, 

 ether, benzine, creosote, tobacco or 

 cyanide of potassium. A cyanide bottle 

 (Fig. 14) which should have a wide 

 mouth and a tight cork, is prepared 

 by dropping one or a few small lumps 

 of cyanide of potassium, enough alto- 

 gether to be as large as a marble, vary- 

 ing of course with the size of the 

 bottle, pour over the lumps enough of 

 a mixture of plaster of Paris and 

 water of cream-like consistency to 

 well cover the cyanide, or put in 

 water enough to cover and add dry 

 plaster of Paris enough to make a 

 cement. Allow it to dry before cork- 

 ing. It is well to slip in strips of 

 paper or a thin layer of cotton batting 

 or discs of blotting paper or thin cork 

 rest on. Robertson's cyanide bottle 

 is constructed by 



111. 



Fig 14. Cyanide 



bottle (after Riley). 



Fig. 15. A spreading board. 

 The cleat d is one of two short 

 ones that do not extend in far 

 enough to interfere with the 



for the insects to 



described in the American Naturalist 



putting some pieces of cyanide in a pill-box which can be 



inserted into the under side of the cork of the bottle or linoleum strip. Another should 



glued to it. The free side of the pill-box is perforated }> e "^ own ** ^ u PP er end ex " 

 ° .. , . , , T , .. .., , , r l ■' iT ' ' • i. tending all the way across. 



with pin holes. Keep tightly corked except when insert- (After Anna B. Comstock in 

 ing or taking out an insect. To use chloroform, ether or Teacher's Leaflet No. 7 ; Coll. of 

 benzine put a few drops on a bit of cotton batting and A§rric -' - Corne11 Univ )- 

 -shut in box or bottle with the insect, or in like manner use a piece of cork saturated 

 with creosote. 



After killing, lepidoptera are spread on a board until dry. The spreading is easily 

 done before the insect becomes rigid. To make a spreading board (Fig. 15) take two 

 pieces of smooth soft board one-third to one-half inch thick and ten to eighteen inches 

 long by two or three inches wide, tack them a half inch apart at one end, a quarter 

 inch at the other to cross cleats ; below the opening tack an inch-wide strip of lino- 

 leum, corky side upwards, from cleat to oleat. 



