MosLEY : Hints on Collecting Insects. 



149 



lower half like a lid, and having a cork in the neck it is then almost 

 air-tight. The leaves may be put in and allowed to bide their time, 

 and any notes may be pinned to the cork on the top. The beating 

 tray will also be useful for taking members of the gnat family, and 

 others from shrubs or herbage. The sea shore will furnish some 

 among sea-weed, or on the bare sand, like Actora cBstivum^ which may 

 be found by the million, but a fearful thing to catch, for just when 

 you think you have got one in the box, it is away somewhere else, and 

 they are generally so numerous that it appears a foolish thing to start 

 netting for the sake of one or two. A great many besides Musca 

 domtstica may be taken in the house, and they are easily seen, as they 

 always make to the window to get out again. In fact, Diptera may 

 be taken almost anywhere. One line of advice : Never take a 

 specimen without attaching a label with date and locality, 



Diptera may be killed like lepidoptera. A good plan, when there 

 is a lot to do at once, is to open each cKip-box a little and pile them 

 up, then set fire to a little brimstone, and cover with an earthenware 

 pot. The larger species may be pinned ; the pin must then be thrust 

 into a slab of cork till the thorax nearly touches the cork. The legs 

 must then be set out upon the cork, and the wings must either be 

 left in their natural position or set out on little trays of cardboard, 

 supported by a pin on each side of the insect. When the wings are 

 in position they may be secured by a brace of cardboard over the 

 wing, pressed down upon the tray below. When dry they may be 

 removed, and a round or square piece of note paper slipped on the 

 pin, to support the feet, bearing the locality and date of the capture. 

 The smaller species may be gummed (with tragacanth) to slips of white 

 card, and the wings may sometimes be got into position easily by 

 floating the specimens on a basin of water, and lifting them out with 

 blotting paper inserted underneath. When dry they may be trans- 

 ferred from the blotting paper to the card without injury. 



Primrose Hill, Huddersfield. 



ON THE STUDY AND COLLECTING OF HYMENOPTERA. 



By W. Denison Roebuck. 



The very pertinent suggestions made in the March Naturalist by Mr. 

 S. L. Mosley deserve the best consideration which Yorkshire entomo- 

 logists can bestow, and are at this time much needed. We ought — and 

 why should we not be able ?■ — to include within our Union students of 



