Article beginning on page 132.
Psyche 4:132, 1883.

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132 PSYCHE. [ January-February 1834.
flies, is on the border of woods, open
glades, meadow lands, etc.
Specimens should not be allowed to
remain over night unpinned. The
large specimens may be pinned through
the thorax, preferably with japanned
iron pins. They should be placed on
the pin only low enough so that the
head may be grasped with the thumb
and forefinger without danger to the
specimen. The wings should never
be spread. Spreading not only renders
the specimens more difficult to study,
but it spoils the natural appearance of
the insects, and is a positive injury to them for the cabinet. All that is
necessary is to push aside the wings so
that they will not conceal the abdomen.
Minute specimens should be pinned
with fine iron wire from the underside,
and then pinned upon small strips of
thin cork, the 'upper surface of which
MUSEUM PESTS OF SERVICE TO THE
ENTOMOLOGIST.- Trogoderma tarsa?e
has heretofore been viewed with un-
mixed hatred by entomologists, but for
the last few days I have been showering
blessings on the heads of a particular
colony which had established itself in a pill-box containing some hundreds of
specimens of a pteromalid reared from
the cocoons of A$anteZes aletiae Riley.
It is true that nothing but fragments of the pteromalid remained after the Tro-
godema had been at work for a year
or more, but among these fragments
has been covered with white paper, and
through the other end of which a pin
is thrust. Small specimens should
never be glued to bits of card-board,
as is commonly done with coleoptera.
Only one specimen should be placed
on the piece of cork.
The greatest enemy to dipterological
collections is dust: insects can be
guarded against, but it is difficult to
exclude dust, unless tight cases are
used. Dampness and mildew do often
much mischief.
A good dipterological specimen must
be unrubbed, unmoistened, not dusty
nor greasy, and with the wings un-
spread. It is quite as easy to collect
good specimens as poor ones and much
more satisfactory.
[For other articles on the collection and preservation of diptera, see Rec., 157, 2335, 3396 3404 and 3405.1
I have found a number which illus-
trate points in the external anatomy
better than the most careful dissections. Certain points concerning the form and
structure of the metanotum-alway s
hard to study in the complete insect, and very difficult to dissect out, owing to a disagreeable tendency to break through
the middle as readily as at a suture-
are admirably exhibited by these acci-
dental anatomical preparations. Truly
it is an ill wind that blows no good.
L. 0. Howard.
Washington, D. C.. 25 Jan. 1884.




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