COLLECTING, MOUNTING AND REARING 
MOSQUITOES. 
COLLECTING ADULTS. 
In flight, adult mosquitoes may be captured with a net. A small, light, 
silken net is preferable, though an ordinary insect net will serve, if care be taken 
to let the insects settle before inserting the bottle. The chloroform killing 
bottle is the best, as the insects die more quickly and are thus less liable to injure 
themselves. A satisfactory bottle may be made by placing a rubber stopper in 
the bottom of a test-tube and pouring chloroform upon it. The chloroform is 
absorbed by the rubber, which swells to fill the tube, and a supply of vapor is 
subsequently given off without a residue of liquid to wet the captures. An ordi- 
nary cyanide bottle will serve, but it is necessary with this to wait a longer time 
until the insects are quiet before reopening it to admit others. Cotton should 
be placed in the bottom of the tube or jar to keep the mosquitoes from becoming 
abraded by sliding about as the jar is carried, or in the case of a small jar, narrow 
strips of absorbent paper. On no account should any other insects be killed in 
the same jar with mosquitoes. 
The female adults of many species are readily captured as they come to bite, 
when they can generally be taken by placing the collecting bottle over them. 
Horses or other animals may be used as bait, or the person of some obliging 
friend. The collector can often attract specimens in some numbers by sitting 
in the woods or open, evenings after dark or by day, according to the species 
sought, and may collect them as they come. All males and those females that do 
not bite may be taken by beating bushes and low vegetation, especially in damp 
situations along streams and marshes. Some species frequent trunks of trees, 
hiding in the crevices of the bark, and may be searched for in the daytime. 
Outhouses, cellars and caves should be searched for the species which seek 
shelter in such situations. 
MOUNTING ADULTS. 
In mounting the adults for the cabinet a double mount should always be used. 
The insects are too small to admit of pinning them directly upon ordinary insect 
pins, except those of the smallest calibre. These can only be handled with 
forceps and this is very inconvenient in ordinary work. The specimens should 
be mounted upon card-points, small triangular pieces of card, the insect glued 
upon the small end, an insect pin passed through the larger end. The specimens 
should be attached by the ventral surface of the thorax, so that the upper side 
will be free for examination. We find shellac dissolved in alcohol the best 
adhesive. ‘The pins carrying the card-points should be stout enough to be 
handled easily. Large specimens, like Megarhinus, may be pinned with the 
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