SETTIXG .VXD PRESERVING INSECTS. 319 



Coi.EOPTERA, OnxiioPTERA, AND IIemiptera. — Tlic prcscrvation of 

 these Orders is attended with very Uttle difficulty. 



They are easily killed by immersion in scalding water, and upon 

 being withdrawn should be thrown on a sheet of blossom or blotting 

 jvaper to extract as much as possible the water : or they may be killed 

 by exposing them in a tin box with a little camphor in it to the heat 

 of a lire, which treatment will add greatly to their preservation. Those 

 of the Me/oc and Gn/llus Genera, which have full and tender bodies, 

 are subject to shrivel after death : to preserve them, make an incision 

 on the under part of the abdomen, take out the entrails with a blunt 

 pen or probe, and till the cavity with cotton. 



Specimens of Coleoptera that arc required to be set with the wings 

 displayed, should have the elyti'a separated and the pin passed through 

 the body near the thorax, as at /)/. 12. J/g. Q ; the wings are to be dis- 

 posed as in the act of flying, and kept in this situation until perfectly- 

 dry with the card braces h and c ; insects of these Orders should never 

 have the pin i)assed through the thorax, but through the right elytron 

 on the right side, as shown at pi. 12. fig. 1 : the legs, antennae, and 

 palpi should be placed out in a natural position on the setting boards, 

 and kept so by pins and braces, for a longer or shorter time, according 

 to the size of the insect and state of the weather. No insect must be 

 placed in the cabinet until it is perfectly dry. IVIinute insects should 

 be fixed on slips of card, as at/>/. 12. fig. 5 and G, with gum, previous 

 to which the legs, &c. should be extended, for future examination : tri- 

 angular slips of card are to he preferred, as no greater portion of the 

 insect should be hid than what is absolutely necessary to fix it to the 

 card, as 'dtfg. 5. 



Lepidoptera. — Buftcrfics are soon killed if a pin is passed through 

 tlie thorax; but many of the Sphinges and large Moths are difticidt to 

 kill, lieing very tenacious of lite. Mr. Haworth in his Lepkhiptcm Bri- 

 tannica, in his observations on Bombvx Cossus, remarks, that " the 

 usual way of compressing the thorax is not sidficienf. they will live 

 several days after the most severe pressure has been given there, to 

 the great uneasiness of anv humane Entomologist. The methods of 

 suftocation by tobacco or sulphur are equally inefiicacious, unless conti- 

 nued for a greater numlter of hours than is proper lor the preservation 

 of the specimens. Another method now in practice is better; and, 

 however fraught with cruelt}' it may appear to the inexperienced col- 

 lector, is the greatest piece of comparative viercij that can in this case 

 be administered. When the larger jNIoths must be killed, destroy them 

 at once by the insertion of a strong red hot needle into their thickest parts, 

 beginning at the front of the thorax. If this is properly done, instead ot 

 lingering through several dai/s thei/ arc dead in a moment. It appears to 

 me, however, that insects being animals of cold and sluggish juices, are 

 not so susceptible of the sensations we call pain as those which enjoy a 



