26 MISC. PUB. 601, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



DEAD INSECTS 



Mounted insects should be firmly pinned in a box securely lined 

 with cork or some other suitable material. If the specimen is heavy, 

 or if the pin carries some other heavy object such as a small vial, 

 additional pins should be set firmly on each side of the specimen or 

 vial to prevent them from rotating on the pin and to keep the pin 

 from coming out of the cork. Heavy specimens or objects loose in 

 a box can break all the other specimens in the container. 



PACKING FOR SHIPMENT 



Vials should be wrapped separately in strong paper and then packed 

 in a mailing case or strong box with cotton or cellucotton around them 

 so they cannot shift about. Vials containing any except very small 

 specimens should be full of liquid or have a tight plug of cotton 

 inserted at the surface of the liquid so that the specimens cannot 

 splash about. Be sure that the cork fits and is firmly set. 



Pill boxes should be packed snugly in a stout container with some 

 packing around them. Boxes of mounted specimens, as well as most 

 other containers, should be placed in a larger carton with at least 2 

 inches of excelsior, straw, or crumpled paper packed tightly enough 

 all around to hold the container in place, yet loosely enough to be 

 resilient. 



Do not put loose naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene in either pill 

 boxes or insect boxes that are being shipped. Never send insects in 

 ordinary envelopes ; they are invariably crushed and worthless. 



Always send as complete information as possible with specimens 

 submitted for identification. Labels carrying data should be so at- 

 tached or enclosed that there is no doubt as to which specimens they 

 belong with. 



RECOGNITION OF MATERIAL 



Because of the enormous number of insect species, anything even 

 approximating a complete classification is impossible in this bulletin. 

 The following brief section on identification is designed to aid the 

 collector in recognizing the commoner and more important general 

 groups with sufficient accuracy to follow the instructions previously 

 given. 



Insects are classified as belonging to orders, and all insects of the 

 same general kind belong to the same order. For example, all moths 

 and butterflies are included in the order Lepidoptera, all beetles 

 belong to the order Coleoptera, and so on. These orders are divided 

 into families, the families are further divided into genera (singular, 

 genus), and each genus may include from one to many species. A 

 species is a particular kind, as distinguished from the more or less 

 general kinds of insects that make up the genera, families, and orders. 

 Each known species of insect has a scientific name, which consists of 

 the generic name, the specific (species) name, and the name of the 

 man who described and named the insect. For example, Musca domes- 

 tica Linnaeus is the scientific name of the common housefly ; Musca 



