INSECTS. 69 



industry and prepared by art, and which ought to live, as it were, 

 for the admiration of future ages, may fall a prey to an intruding 

 and almost invisible enemy, so that, unless the solution of cor- 

 rosive sublimate in alcohol is applied, you are never perfectly 

 safe from surprise. I have tried a decoction of aloes, wormwood 

 and walnut-leaves, thinking they would be of service on account 

 of their bitterness. The trial completely failed. 



Many Entomologists are satisfied with possessing the insect in 

 its perfect or image condition. But it is exceedingly interesting 

 to be able to trace these through their different states of existence 

 from the egg to the perfect insect. Besides, we are certain to 

 produce the insects in the highest state of preservation when we 

 breed them ourselves, and it is besides very interesting to have 

 the eggs of the different species as well as the Caterpillar and 

 pupa. 



THE EGGS OF INSECTS. 



The eggs of insects preserve their form and color in a cabinet, 

 in general, without much trouble. Swammerdam had a method 

 of preserving them when they appeared to be giving way. He 

 made a perforation within them with a fine needle, pressed out 

 their contents, afterwards inflated them with a glass blow-pipe, 

 and filled them with a mixture of resin and oil of spike. 



THE LARVAE, OR CATERPILLARS. 



The easiest way of destroying the Catapillar is by immersion in 

 spirits of wine. They may be retained for a long time in this 

 spirit without destroying their color. 



Mr. William Weatherhead had an ingenuous mode of pre- 

 serving Larvss. He killed the Caterpillar, as above directed, and 

 having made a small puncture in the tail, gently pressed out the 

 contents of the abdomen, and then filled the skin with fine dry 

 sand, and brought the animal to its natural circumference. It is 

 then exposed to the air to dry, and it will have become quite hard 

 in the course of a few hours, after which the sand may be shaken 

 out at the small aperture, and the Caterpillar then gummed to a 

 piece of card. 



Another method is, after the entrails are squeezed out, to insert 

 into the aperture a glass tube which has been drawn to a very fine 



