58 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



buzzard is more often seen there than other species. 

 Several specimens killed at that spot, within a score 

 or two of years, are powerful, ragged, savage-looking 

 birds, with broken, grey and white plumage, and 

 tails considerably longer than the wings ; no two 

 "were alike. The long forked-tailed kite has dis- 

 appeared from the South of England, to the great 

 satisfaction of all concerned in rearing young poultry, 

 game, or pigs ; these never being safe when once 

 discovered by that audacious thief. 



M. O. H. 



ON MOUNTING AND PRESERVING THE 

 LARV.E OF BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 



WILL you allow me to describe my method of 

 mounting and preserving the forms of the 

 various moth and butterfly larvre ? What I have to 

 say may perhaps be a help to some ; or induce others 

 who know a better plan to communicate it in return. 

 For the last three or four years I have been 

 working out my own in my leisure hours ; and, con- 

 sidering that I have been totally unaided, I think I 

 may say that I have been tolerably successful. After 

 seeing Lord Walsingham's fine collection of mounted 

 larvse at the Entomological Show held in the Royal 

 Aquarium last March, I made up my mind to write to 

 Science-Gossip on the subject. For I have long 

 felt that our collections would be greatly increased 

 in value and attractiveness by the addition of a nicely- 

 mounted larva to each specimen of the perfect insect. 

 The apparatus required is very simple, consisting only 

 of a glass retort holding about about a quart, a foot 

 length of india-rubber tubing about the size used for 

 babies' bottles, a small piece of glass piping, and some 

 dry straws of different sizes. Into one end of the 

 india-rubber tubing fit a portion of glass pipe so as to 

 make a mouthpiece : this we will call our blow-pipe. 

 Then secure a well-grown caterpillar ; which must be 

 at least a week off the stage of becoming a pupa, for 

 when that change is about to take place an amount of 

 white fatty matter adheres to the skin, which it is 

 almost impossible to get rid of, and which, if left 

 there, spoils the preparation. Place this larva in a 

 box and some chloroform or benzole with it ; but 

 take care neither of them touch it ; having first 

 covered the inside of the box with blotting-paper all 

 round to absorb any of the dark green matter which 

 often exudes from the mouth of larva; when irritated 

 or alarmed. When the grub is quite dead and slightly 

 relaxed, take it out of the box and place it upon a 

 sheet of blotting-paper, and gently pass a roller, made 

 of a common pencil covered with blotting-paper, 

 down from the head to the tail. By this means the 

 entire contents of the creature may be expelled per 

 anum without any damage to the skin. Next select 

 a straw about the size of the opening through which 

 the contents were discharged, and pass it into the 



body a short distance, and there fix it. This may be 

 done by passing two small pins at right angles to 

 each other through the extremity of the tail of the 

 larva and the inserted straw, and then adding a little 

 gum or glue round the skin of the caterpillar where 

 it touches the straw on the outside which will make 

 the whole air-tight. Now that you have your cater- 

 pillar fairly fastened on one end of the straw, pass 

 the other end into the india-rubber extremity of your 

 blow-pipe, and fix it there by a slight ligature. Put- 

 ting the glass end to your mouth, blow gently into it, 

 and you will inflate your larva, which will at once 

 assume its natural shape, provided only it is not dis- 

 tended too much. Then light your Bunsen burner, 

 and having moderately heated the retort, hold the 

 larva thus inflated in the hot air of the retort till it is 

 perfectly dry. Especial care must be taken that it is 

 neither over-heated nor imperfectly dried, or before 

 long the skin will become wrinkled or pitted. Now 

 clip your pins off close to the straw and cut away the 

 straw at the end of the caterpillar's tail : and your 

 work is done. And if you have gone through all 

 these stages carefully, it will be done very satisfactorily 

 too, for the larva will be found to have lost little or 

 no colour and to be in a very natural position. There 

 is no need to trouble oneself at all on this last point, 

 for each will assume that which is most natural in its 

 own state of rest. The greatest difficulty I have 

 experienced has been the preservation of the colour 

 in the case of the light green ones, and I believe it to 

 be impossible without the aid of some colouring 

 matter or dye. For their colour is not in the skin, as 

 appears from the fact that, as soon as they cleared 

 out by our roller, the skin is no longer green but of a 

 whitish hue. It had always been a great object with 

 me to preserve their colour, and I looked upon its 

 reproduction by means of paints as an illegitimate 

 process, but I have been at last compelled to think it 

 indispensable. 



In the case of hairy sorts the utmost care is required 

 to avoid destroying the hairs. But provided the 

 grub is not too near casting its skin you may 

 generally manage this by proper precaution. 



I now think I have stated all that is necessary to. 

 the perfect carrying-out of my process. 



I may, however, mention in conclusion one other 

 way of securing the colours of the light green speci- 

 mens ; and that is by filling the emptied skins with 

 strong alcohol coloured by dyes. The alcohol hardens 

 the skin and colours it from the inside, which is more 

 natural than if the colour were laid on externally. 



William Brewster. 



Natural History Clubs. — If any of your readers 

 should have experience in connection with village 

 Natural History clubs, or Botanical clubs, they would 

 confer a benefit upon certain persons desirous to form 

 such a club if they would kindly send a brief state- 

 ment of the most advisable method of conducting 

 them to W. L. B., The Rectory, Pulborough, Sussex^ 



