482 Recent Literature. [ August, 
and is well adapted for museums and large collections, where the 
labor of individual cleaning would be too great. But so far as 
regards mites this is not necessary if the drawers or boxes only 
fit moderately closely. Then it will be found sufficient to ex- 
pose a few crystals of pure naphthaline for an hour or two in the 
drawers. This is the simplest, easiest, and most effectual of all 
contrivances to destroy mites. 
here it is necessary to treat the insects in detail, another 
effective but more troublesome plan is to expose the infected in- 
sect to the vapor of liquid ammonia, by placing a morsel of sponge 
in a paint saucer and moistening it with a few drops of powerful 
liquid ammonia. The insect is placed on a bit of cork alongside 
of the sponge, and the whole covered by a tumbler or small bell- 
glass, so as to keep in the vapor ; and in ten minutes or a quarter 
of an hour the cure is generally complete. Sometimes it must be 
repeated ; but this is rarely necessary. 
Insects should never be put away until they have been well 
dried, and, if necessary, freed from fatty visceral matters. This 
is particularly necessary for kinds brought up in captivity or full 
of juice at the moment of their capture. : 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Murray’s Economic Entomoioey.1— While this work refers at 
length to such myriopods, spiders and Thysanura as in any way affect 
man, it is mainly devoted to the mites and ticks, and as such is the only 
recent and complete manual treating of these important animals which is 
accessible to the English student. The collections forming the basis of 
the work are in the Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington 
Museum, and must form a curious department of the museum. This col- 
lection is designed for the instruction of the people, and the specimens 
illustrative of insects injurious to vegetation, or obnoxious to man ap 
the domestic animals, are openly exposed in cases along with colored 
figures of them, often more or less magnified according to the size of ae 
insect, a practice particularly useful in such minute beings as the mites: 
Models of injuries done to perishable objects have also been added. It 
is doubtful, judging by the author’s statements, whether there is any 
other museum either in Europe or America where such & mass of infor- 
mation regarding the habits of troublesome or injurious insects have been 
spread before the people. 
conomie Entomology. Aptera. By ne Murray. Prepared at the Reques' 
of the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, and Published for them by 
Chapman & Hall, 193 Piccadilly, London. 1877. 12mo, pp. 433. 
1 South Kensington Museum Science Be ag Branch Museum, Bethnal ee 
