158 PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



In setting coleopterous insects, the pin, graduated in size accor- 

 dino; to the insect, must be forced throuf^h the rio;ht winrr-cover near 

 the thorax, and so down through the abdomen to the board. Draw 

 out the limbs and antennae. The position should be that of the 

 insect in motion, and the legs should be in a somewhat depending 

 position, — see fig. 2. If there are two specimens of the same insect, 

 one should be set in the attitude of flying, with the wing-covers 

 apart and wings drawn out and fastened, and the pin thrust through 

 the middle of the abdomen, — see fi":. 4. 



In hymen ojjterous insects, the tongue should be drawn out and 

 fastened with a pin, care being taken to avoid the sting with which 

 many of them are provided. These rules apply to all insects, with 

 variations in either order, which will readily be seen by the collec- 

 tor. As before remarked, experience will suggest the best modes, 

 and give facility to the operations. 



Concluding Remarks. 



The object of these remarks has been not so much to induce farm- 

 ers and farmers sons and daughters to make collections of insects, 

 as to encourage and induce observation and investigation, particu- 

 larly of the myriads of little beings that form the insect world. In 

 collecting and preserving specimens of insects, the person is neces- 

 sarily made conversant to a certain extent with the particulars in 

 regard to those species, and by continuing is made more interested 

 and familiar, until being led on step by step he acquires a zest for 

 the occupation and enters upon the study of the science which ho 

 may continue for a lifetime, and still leave new and interesting sub- 

 jects for his posterity. And he should not only study and observe, 

 but should record the result of those observations and studies that 

 his followers may have the record of his labors to assist them in the 

 same study and spare them the necessity of travcdling the same path. 



Do not consider the subject a trivial or useless one, for insect life 

 is as necessary to form the great whole, as any portion of creation. 

 Not a flower unfolds its painted petals to the sunshine, not a pebble 

 that is heedlessly crushed and trodden beneath the foot, not an in- 

 sect that crawls on the earth or flits through the air, not even the 

 simplest of His creation but has its own history forming a fixed 

 portion of some great science whose mysterious truths may well en- 

 gross the study of a lifetime. Whatever God in his wisdom has 

 seen fit to create, must be worthy for man in his weakness to study. 



