SETTING AXD PRESERVING INSECTS. 319 



Coi.EOPTERA, Ortiioptera, AND IIemiptera. — Tlic prcservation of 

 these Orders is attended with very httle difticulty. 



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

 being withdrawn should be thrown on a sheet of blossom or blotting 

 paper 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 fire, which treatment will add greatly to their preservation. Those 

 of the 2Te/o€ and G?-f/!lits Genera, which have full and tender bodies, 

 are subjet t 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 fill the cavity with cotton. 



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

 displayed, should have the elytra separated and the pin passed tluough 

 the body near the thorax, as at pi. 12. fg. 'I ; the wings are to be dis- 

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

 dry with the card ijraces b and c ; insects of these Orders should never 

 have the pin passed through the thorax, but through the right elytron 

 on the right side, as shown at/)/. 12. Jis,. 1 : the legs, antenna-, and 

 palpi shoulil be placed out in a natural ])Osifion 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. Minute insects should 

 be fixed on slips of card, as at;)/. 12. fig. 5 mdO, with gum, previous 

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

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

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

 card, as at %. 5. 



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

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

 kill, being very tenacious of life. Mr, Ilaworth in his Lepidoptera Bri~ 

 tantiica, in his observations on Bombyx Cossus, remarks, that " the 

 usual way of compressing the thorax is not sulficient : they will live 

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

 the great uneasiness of any humane Entomologist. The methods of 

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

 nued tor a greater number of hours than is proper for the preservation 

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

 however fraught with cruelty it may appear to the inexperienced col- 

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

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

 at once by the innei-tion of a .'strong red hat needle into their thickest parts, 

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

 lingering through several dai/s they are 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 



