110 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



oven, extended horizontally upon the straw by blowing gently and steadily 

 through the straw, as one uses a blow-pipe. Too forcible inflation wilJ 

 make the caterpillar unsightly by distending unnaturally any spot that may 

 have been weakened or bruised in the previous o])eration ; the caterpillar 

 should be kept slowly but constantly turning, and no harm will result from 

 withdrawing the creature from the oven and allowing it to collapse, to gain 

 breath or rest ; only this relaxation should be very brief. The caterpillar 

 should be first introduced into the oven while inflated by the breath, and 

 so placed that the hinder extremity shall be in the hottest part, directly 

 above the flame, for it is essential that the animal should dry from behind 

 forward ; yet not altogether, for as soon as the hinder part has begun to- 

 stiff*en (which can readily be detected by withholding the breath for a 

 second) the portion next in front should receive partial attention, and the 

 caterpillar moved backward and forward, round and round over the flame. 

 During this process any tendency of the caterpillar to assume unnatural 

 positions may be corrected — at least in part — by withdrawing it from the 

 oven and manipulating it ; during inflation, the parts about the head 

 should be the last to dry and should be kept over the flame until a rather 

 forcible touch will not cause it to bend. 



To secure the best results, it is essential that the oven should not be 

 too hot ; the flame should not be more than an inch high, and its tip 

 should be one or two inches from the bottom of the oven. 



When the skin of the caterpillar will yield at no point, it is ready for 

 mounting. The pin is removed from the straw and the caterpillar skin,, 

 which often adheres to the straw, must be gently removed with some 

 delicate, blunt instrument, or with the finger nail. 



A piece of wire a little more than twice the length of the caterpillar 

 is next cut, and, by means of forceps, bent as in fig. 21, the tips a little 

 incurved ; a little shellac* is placed at the distal extremity of the loop, the 

 wire is held by the forceps just beyond this point, so as to prevent the 

 free ends of the wire from spreading, and they are introduced into the 

 empty body of the caterpillar as far as the forceps will allow ; holding the 

 loop and gently opening the forceps, the caterpillar is now pushed over 

 the wire with extreme care, until the hinder extremity has passed half-way 

 over the loop, and the shellac has smeared the interior sufficiently to hold 



* To prepare this, the sheets of dark shellac should be preferred to the light, and 

 dissolved in forty per cent, alcohol. 



