485 
ON 
THE 
COLLECTION AND 
OF INSECTS. 
PEESERVATION 
By F. M. HOWLETT, B.A., F.E.S., 
Christ’s College, Cambridge. Second Imperial Entomologist, India. 
(With 3 Text-Figures.) 
The collection and study of tropical insects now being undertaken 
ill connection with medical and other reseai’ches has resulted in the 
publication of two or three very useful leaflets of instructions as to how 
to catch and send home specimens of blood-sucking and parasitic insects. 
These leaflets are intended for collectors who will send home their 
specimens soon after they have caught them : when this is impossible, 
when specimens have to be carted from place to place and housed, it 
may be, in very unsuitable quarters, it becomes important to use only 
the best methods for preserving them in good condition, and the best 
methods can be arrived at only by combining the experience of 
collectors in different countries. 
One of the greatest wants at present unsupplied is of a store-box 
which shall be really reliable in any climate. No wooden box seems 
able to stand with any certainty against the great variations of humidity 
so frequently experienced. At Pusa (Bengal) well-seasoned teak boxes 
are found to be reliable only when the wood is so thick as to render 
them unpleasantly heavy and cumbersome, a great disadvantage in a 
tropical climate. A metal box gets too hot; it cannot be left in the 
sun even for a few minutes, and at any drop in temperature moisture 
tends to condense on the inside. Cardboard “carton” boxes sometimes 
keep their shape for a surprisingly long time, but have no pretensions 
to permanence. Boxes of three-ply wood appear to be heavy and 
expensive : I have had no personal exjDerience of them. 
