[73] 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 



PIG. 101. Cecidomyiid 

 mounted on pith (ori- 

 ginal). 



specimen to the point, or one will soon become dextrous enough to do 

 this without the aid of the brush. The specimens are then allowed to 

 dry in a horizontally placed box. If the drying box is placed in a ver- 

 tical position the specimens, especially long-bodied ones, are liable to 

 topple over before the glue has become firm. 



Delicate flies and Microlepidoptera, which it will not do to fasten 

 with mucilage, may first be mounted on the fine pins described above 

 and these thrust into oblong or triangular bits of 

 pith or cork, which are mounted on larger pins as 

 shown in Figures 101 and 102. This affords a very 

 satisfactory method of mounting, particularly as the 

 different sexes may be brought together on the same 

 bit of pith, or the adult and puparium in Diptera, as 

 shown at Figure 101. Strips of stout cardboard with 

 the pins run through the narrow edge may also be 

 used. The method of mounting minute Hymenoptera 

 and Diptera and other insects on a bent wire, men- 



tioned above, is illustrated at Fig- 



ure 94. This method has not 



proved so satisfactory, as the wires are apt to become 



loose on the pin. 



Mounting Duplicates. If the collector finds more 



specimens of a rare species than he cares to have in 



his collection, the excess may be mounted as dupli- 



cates. If the species happens to be of a large size the 



specimens are pinned in the ordinary way, but if 



gmall g^ug^ to be gummed, 



there is a most convenient 

 method of rapidly mounting the specimens so that 

 they may be sent through themail with much less risk 

 of getting broken or knocked off than if glued on paper 

 points, and will also take up very little room in the 

 duplicate boxes. It consists in gluing the speci- 

 mens in a transverse row on a strip of white card 

 paper with one of the glues soluble in water, care 

 being taken that between the individual specimens 

 some space be left, and further that the heads and 

 antennae do not project beyond the edge of the paper. 

 The width of the paper strip must be somewhat 

 greater than the length of the specimen, so that below the latter there 

 is sufficient room, for inserting a pin through the paper. After the glue 

 has become dry the row of specimens is cut with scissors into several 

 smaller rows of convenient size, so that on each of these rows there 

 are two or three or more specimens, according to the size of the spe- 

 cies. A locality label is pushed high up on a No. 3 or No. 4 pin, and 

 one of the mounted rows of specimens is then pinned and pushed up 



FIG. io2.-Microiepidop- 



tera mounted on pith 



FIG. 103. Method of 

 mounting duplicates 

 (original). 



