PREPARATION, CAKE, AND DISPLAY OF INSECTS. 320 



made out of thin netting 1 , and to this should be attached a label 

 giving the date and place of capture and a reference to the note- 

 book. In case cotton layers are employed all the specimens of 

 a species, if numerous, should be placed in one layer, and n 

 memorandum to the same purport as the label inserted. 



Insects are prepared for the cabinet by being- mounted upon 

 pins and "expanded." There are various sorts and sizes of 

 insect-pins, but those made by Klaeger, of Berlin, are generally 

 preferred at the present time by the leading- entomologists of 

 the world. The French pins and the so-called " Carlsbad* T 

 pins " are too long and the points are too fine, and, therefore, 

 too likely to be injured to make them desirable. The English 

 pins are too short, and except in the case of very small insects, 

 are not used by the best collectors. Insects should be mounted 

 high upon the pin, i.e., in such a way that not more than one- 

 fifth or at the most one-fourth of the pin shall be exposed above 

 the body of the specimen. Dr. Htaudinger, the celebrated lepi- 

 dopterist of Germany, makes it his rule to mount all his speci- 

 mens in such a way that the wings are elevated upon a plane 

 one inch above the tip of the pin. The writer has had the 

 greater part of his collection, of over fifty thousand specimens 

 of lepidoptera, mounted at an average height of seven-eighths 

 of an inch above the points of the pins. The " English meth- 

 od " of mounting low down, and only leaving enough of the 

 pin exposed below to permit of fixing the specimens in the 

 cork at the bottoms of the drawers of the cabinet, is rapidly 

 passing out of vogue, even in England, and is giving place to 

 the " Continental Method." Insect pins are of various sizes 

 adapted to the size of the insert which they are to carry. The 

 most serviceable; sizes and which will be proportioned to the 

 majority of the insects which the collector is likely to take, are 

 Klaeger's No. 3 and No. 5. For very large insects higher num- 

 bers may be employed, and for smaller insects lower numbers, 

 though in the case of ^ latter it is perhaps better to use the 

 short English pins and then to mount the specimens upon 

 the bits of cork or pith which are themselves mounted upon 

 the longer German pins. Such mounts are known as "double 

 mounts" (see Fig. 96). The writer desires to utter a caution 

 against the use of the common black insect-pins so often sold 



