ARTICULATA. 151 
bottom should be smoothly covered with sheet cork, corn-stalk pith, the soft 
. root of the southern tupelo, or the wood of Agave americana. If soft white 
pine is used, a small hole must be made with an awl before a specimen can 
be inserted. The depth of the drawers will depend upon the length of the 
pins used. The German insect pins are 13 inches long, and are preferable 
on account of their toughness and elasticity, in which they excel the 
English and French pins. The pin that holds the insect will also pass 
through the label. A piece of camphor wrapped in gauze or other thin 
material should be placed in one corner of every drawer, and should it be 
found from the dust beneath a specimen that there is an enemy at work 
within it, it should be removed and subjected to a heat nearly equal to 
that of boiling water. This may be done by placing it in a covered tin 
vessel, which may be immersed in another containing hot water. A good 
wash to destroy moths and the various larvee found in collections, is com- 
posed of one part of oil of turpentine, and six of camphorated alcohol. 
A few globules of mercury are sometimes placed in the drawers to prevent 
the ravages of the minute louse-like Zroctes pulsatorwus. Constant care is 
necessary to prevent collections from being destroyed, and new specimens 
should be introduced with great caution, as they may contain eggs which 
will produce a destructive larva. 
Much of the history of insects remains to be known, and larvee should be 
drawn and described, and kept until their final change shows what they are. 
By a system of numbering, valuable observations may be made without a 
knowledge of the scientific name of an insect. This knowledge comes 
slowly, and the observer should not relinquish his studies because he meets 
with difficulties. New discoveries are made every year in Europe, whose 
entomology has been long studied by numerous active observers, and still 
- more important ones would reward a similar class upon this continent, 
where so much remains to be made known in the various orders of 
insects. 
Coleoptera are widely spread, the largest species being found between the 
tropics. They seem not to be as hardy as some of the Neuroptera and 
Diptera, none being found in Spitzbergen and similar localities. The 
richest collection of Coleoptera is that of the Royal Museum of Berlin, 
which contains 40,000 species. ) 
Various classifications of the Coleoptera have been proposed, not one of 
which has acquired an exclusive popularity. Here we follow that of 
Westwood, which agrees better with the arrangement of Stephens and 
Latreille, than with that of Erichson, which will probably supersede them 
in time. 
The order is divided into sections (Westwood Shuckard), according to 
the joints of the tarsi, which, although they are not uniform in every case, 
afford a remarkably good general characteristic. This gives the four sections, 
Pentamera, Heteromera, Tetramera, and Trimera. Macleay divides the 
Pentamera into two groups (named tribes by Westwood), Chilopodomorpha 
and Chilognathomorpha, according as the larva resembles Scolopendra and 
Julus; and he endeavors to divide the remaining sections in an analogous 
355 
