partly closed by a sliding door, _a_. It will be found of advantage to line the bottom of the box (inside) with a brass screen of very fine mesh to distribute and equalize the heat. This apparatus can be very easily made by any tinsmith and will answer every purpose. [Illustration: FIG. 109.--Drying oven for the inflation of larvae (original).] The larvae of Microlepidoptera or young larvae may be dried without expressing the body contents, and will keep, to a great extent, their normal shape and appearance. The method consists in placing them on a sand bath, heated by an alcohol lamp. The vapor generated by the heat in the larvae inflates them and keeps the skin taut until the juices are entirely evaporated. They may then be glued at once to cardboard and pinned in the cases. In the mounting of large inflated larvae I have adopted the plan of supporting them on covered copper wire of a size varying with the size of the larva. A pin is first thrust through a square bit of cork and the wire brought tightly about it and wrapped once or twice, compressing the cork and giving a firm attachment to the pin. The wire is then neatly bent to form a diamond-shaped loop about one-sixth of an inch in length and again twisted loosely to the end--the length of the twisted portion about equalling that of the larva to be mounted. This is then either thrust into the blown skin of the larva through the anal opening, the larva being glued to the wire by the posterior extremity, or the larva is glued to the wire by the abdominal legs and venter, thus resting on the wire as on a twig. This style of mounting is illustrated in Pl. I. With a little experience the operator will soon be able to inflate the most delicate larvae and also the very hairy forms, as for instance _Orgyia leucostigma_, without the least injury, so that the natural colors and appearance will be preserved. Another very good method, and still safer, is to blow with straw, cut the straw square off at the anus, and then preserve the thoroughly dried and blown specimen in a glass tube of about the same length and diameter as the larva. This arrangement in conjunction with the tube holder, which will be described further on, is one of the most satisfactory for the preservation of inflated larvae. For the biological-display collection, larvae may be blown in various natural positions, to be subsequently fastened on leaf or twig or in burrows which they have occupied. Fastened to artificial foliage in which nature is imitated as much as possible, such blown larvae are quite effective.