116 HOW TO KILL INSECTS MERCIFULLY. 



Sometimes the cocoon remains unbroken beyond 

 the proper season ; and if it is examined, one or two 

 little holes will generally be found in it. These are 

 signs that the egger has met with an untimely fate, 

 and that it has fallen a victim to those scourges of 

 the insect world, the ichneumon flies. Of these 

 creatures we shall speak in a future page, and there- 

 fore omit to describe them here. The moth is shown 

 at fig. 5. 



If the moth is intended to be killed, and then 

 placed in a cabinet, the use of sulphur must be 

 avoided. It kills the moth, certainly ; but it kills 

 the colours also, and quite ruins its appearance. 

 Sulphur is always a dangerous instrument in insect- 

 killing, and should on no. account be used. There 

 are many ways of destroying insects humanely, and 

 extinguishing their life as if by a lightning flash ; 

 but these modes vary according to the size, sex, and 

 nature of the insect. Some of them I will here 

 mention. 



If the insect is a beetle, it may be plunged into 

 boiling water, or into spirits of wine, in which a very 

 little corrosive sublimate has been dissolved. Both 

 modes will destroy the life rapidly, but the former is 

 the better of the two. When walking in the fields 

 or woods, a wide-mouthed, strong bottle, about half 

 full of spirits of wine, is a useful auxiliary, as all 

 kinds of beetles, and even flies and bees, can be put 

 into it; and if dried in a thorough draught, will 



