HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-G OSS 1 F. 



241 



COLLECTING AND PEESEEVING. 



No. X.-COMMENTS ON COLLECTING AND SETTING LEPIDOPTERA. 



■HERE is aright 



and a wrong 



way of doing 



everything" — 



so says the 



proverb : and 



having read 



the article on 



" Collecting and Preserving " 



in your late number, I am 



sorry to see, among much that 



is useful, a reproduction of 



several mistakes which may 



have become respectable by 



reason of age, and repetition 



by various authors of more or 



less eminence ; but which are 



none the less mistakes. 



In the hope that you may 

 admit a kindly criticism of 

 Dr. Knaggs's interesting paper, I will venture to 

 suggest to beginners what experience has taught 

 me to be a more excellent way. Collectors are 

 recommended to set their lepidoptera on corked 

 boards with curved surfaces, that is to say, 

 rounded ofiF gradually from the central line towards 

 the sides. Now that seems to me to be a very 

 absurd way of setting butterflies; the wings of the 

 insect droop quite enough after they have been 

 taken off the board, without requiring to be set 

 in that position in the first instance. Specimens 

 look much better in a collection where the wings of 

 the butterflies and moths have been set so as to 

 maintain a perfectly horizontal position, than they 

 would do if they were all drooping ; and the wings 

 are also less liable to become crumpled in the 

 setting, and are more natural. 



The setting-board or saddle, then, should have a 

 perfectly level and smooth surface on either side of 

 the central groove, and soft planed wood is almost 

 No. 95. 



preferable to cork, having a more uniform surface. 

 (See fig. 170.) 



Again, with regard to the braces for setting, 

 what advantage is there in having them pointed 

 and fastened only at one end ? Why should not 

 the brace be of the same width throughout, and be 

 continued over both wings at a time ? It would thus 

 exert a more equal pressure on the wings and keep 

 them much better in position. They are also more 

 easily cut. 



Fig. 1/0. Level Setting-board. 



In the year 18C9 I was spending the summer in 

 Germany, and in the space of one month and a half 

 I collected myself nearly three hundred different 

 species of butterflies and moths, and I had every 

 evening on an average between forty and fifty 

 specimens to set, which I had captured during 

 the afternoon, and the way I set them was the 

 following : — 



Using the level saddles which 1 have already 

 described, made of soft deal, having pinned the 

 body of the insect straight in the groove, so that 

 the roots of the wings are on a level with the 

 surface of the board, I cut a number of long strips 

 of note-paper, the same width throughout, and the 

 width varying with the size of the insect : generally, 

 however, about one-sixth of an inch wide. Then 

 taking a strip in the left hand, 1 fasten one end of 

 it into the wood with a common pin, just above 

 where the border of the front wing will come when 

 in position; then holding the other end of the 

 strip in the left band, I place both wings of that 

 side in position by means of a finely pointed needle 

 and then stretch the strip of paper across them near 



M 



