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On Insect Mounting in Hot Climates. 



By Thos. Curties and John E. Ingpen. 



{Bead January 23, 1874.) 



Abstract. 



The object of this paper was to bring under the notice of the 

 Chib a collection of 146 slides of insects and parts of insects, 

 mounted by Mr. Staniforth Green, of Colombo, Ceylon, and pre- 

 sented to the Club by Mr. Curties ; with especial reference to the 

 methods employed in mounting them, by which the objects were 

 preserved in a natural and very beautiful manner. Reference was 

 made to the usual methods of mounting insects, in which much 

 was often sacrificed to the production of showy and attractive 

 preparations, while there was sometimes great distortion of parts 

 and alteration of structure. The well-known object, the proboscis 

 of the blow-fly, was taken as an example, and Mr. Suffolk's 

 remarks upon it, in a paper read before the Royal Microscopical 

 Society in April, 1869, were quoted. Mr. Suffolk had at that time 

 given up the flattening process, and prepared his specimens by 

 soaking recently-killed flies in glycerine, and leaving them until 

 required for examination, when they were mounted in the same 

 fluid in various positions, without pressure. Such specimens showed 

 the muscles and chitinous endo and exo-skeleton with considerable 

 clearness. 



The methods employed by Mr. Green were then described, and 

 many extracts from his letters read. It appeared that he had for 

 the most part given up soaking the preparations in potash, and 

 those which had been so treated were among the least successful 

 in the collection. Most of the specimens were admirably suited 

 for examination under the binocular, and showed to great advantage 

 with paraboloid illumination. The smaller insects were killed in 

 ether, immediately immersed in Canada balsam, without pressure, 

 and exposed for a considerable time to the rays of the sun, by 



