DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING MICROLEPIDOPTERA. 279 
ordinary purposes cardboard boxes answer sufficiently well. It is 
a good plan at the beginning of a season to strengthen all your 
boxes by a crossed strap of tape or calico firmly glued at the top 
and bottom, For a killing box any tin box or canister with a 
closely fitting lid capable of containing one hundred pill boxes 
will be found to answer. 
Setting boards can be bought ready made of the smallest sizes. 
They are made by gluing a strip of thick cork on a thin slip of 
deal, the cork must be thick enough to enable a groove to be cut 
into it, deep enough to hold the bodies of the insects to be set and 
to leave sufficient depth for the pin to hold firmly without reach- 
ing the deal. The cork on each side of the groove should be 
smoothed off with a gentle curve, so that the wings dry in a good 
position. The deal backing projects beyond the cork so as to slide 
into a groove if required, and it is convenient to have a deal cup- 
board of drying boxes with handle at top and perforated zine door, 
having grooves on each side into which the setting boards can be 
slid. Each board should be papered with thin white paper. 
At the beginning of a season setting boards may be washed or 
brushed over with advantage with a weak solution of oxide of zinc, 
it fills up old pinholes and makes them look clean. 
For Tortricina use No. 10 pins; for Tineina (small), No. 19; 
for Nepticule, No. 20. : 
_ Always set your insects as soon as you kill them, they are then 
much more easy to set and retain their position better when dry. 
When pill boxes are filled keep them cool to prevent the insects 
from fluttering ; if glass boxes, keep them also in the dark. 
any species when first taken will flutter in the boxes and injure 
themselves ; for these it is well when collecting to carry a small 
phial of chloroform and a zine collecting box corklined, into which 
you can at once pin your captures ; the cork should be damped to 
ep them fresh. Touching a pill box with a finger moistened 
With chloroform will kill the insect inside. Too much chloroform 
'S apt to stiffen the nerves of the wings and interfere with setting. 
By breeding Microlepidoptera many species not otherwise 
easily obtainable may be added to a collection, and the habits of 
*s in the larva state may be studied with much interest. For 
. > Purpose a few wide mouthed glass bottles should be obtained 
se Corks to fit, so that the small larve can be placed in them 
with fresh food and the food kept fresh by exclusion of air. If 
