88 
Beck_, on the Scales of Lepidocyrtus. 
has been left for a future opportunity, wlien I shall be better 
able to remove all doubts concerning it than I am at present. 
My mode of removing the scales may be a help to some. 
Whenever practicable, I prefer taking the stone, piece of wood, 
or whatever the insects may be on (if at all portable), into 
the house, where I spread a large piece of paper on the table ; 
they are easily brushed off on to this, when they should be 
immediately covered over, before they, have time to hop, by 
some small thing, such as the top or bottom of a pill-box ; 
if this be left over them for a minute or so, and then 
removed, they will be found to be quite quiet, and a 3 x 1 
slide, or a piece of thin glass, may be carefully pressed upon 
them without squeezing out of any of their juices; whilst the 
scales will adhere closely to the glass. As by this method, 
however, the insects will frequently hop away and escape, they 
may be made perfectly motionless by applying, with a camel's 
hair pencil, a little chloroform near them, upon the paper, 
before the cover is moved. 
At some future time I may, perhaps, be allowed space 
to' furnish descriptions of the scales of several other species ; 
for I have found it impossible to determine the structure 
of any one specimen except by comparison with other 
varieties — a theory that appears applicable to the one struc- 
ture being impossible in another. Neither is the subject 
an exclusive one ; for a consideration of the appearances 
produced by transparent objects under the microscope ex- 
tends vastly beyond determining the mere fact, as to whether 
the wedge-shaped markings of the Podura scale possess an 
individuality as little scales, or are mere inequalities in the 
substance or on the surface of a membrane. 
