NOTES ON COLLECTING, ETC. 253 



lota and other common insects, but in vast and wonderful abundance : 

 a touch of the tree filled the beating tray. — G. M. A. Heweit, 

 Winchester. October 29///, 1890. 



North Wales. — Ivy has been very unprofitable this autumn as has 

 also "sugar." Six visits to the former have only resulted in the capture 

 of 6 Cerastis vaccina. — J. E. R. Allen, Ruthin. N'ovember, 1890. 



Clevedon. — Insects have not been so plentiful as usual at ivy this 

 autumn, and I have only taken one specimen of Dasycampa rubiginea 

 up to this date, but hope to get more should the weather keep mild. — 

 J. Mason, Clevedon Court Lodge, Somerset. November <^tli, 1890. 



Darlington. — Ivy is a failure as usual in this district though I did 

 better than I ever did before. — Wm. Milburn, Darlington. November, 

 1890, 



Setting Lepidoptera. — It is with some diffidence that I write this 

 article, for I am well aware that it might easily have been placed in far 

 worthier hands than mine ; but our Editor has specially asked me to 

 do so, and this must be my excuse for appearing in the character of a 

 reformer before the readers of this Magazine. That "anything worth 

 doing at all is worth doing well," is an old axiom, which it would be as 

 well to bear in mind with regard to setting insects, and in fact to 

 entomological work generally. I have known it stated on more than 

 one occasion, that setting is quite a minor consideration, and that fine 

 condition of specimens is all that is necessary in a collection; but surely 

 this is absurd. The very setting of an insect in some bizarre manner 

 is quite sufficient to alter its apparent character, and, if all Lepidoptera 

 were pinned and set in the same style, many difficulties would be 

 removed from the path of determining closely allied species. Take a 

 case with which we are all familiar. A box of insects is received from 

 a correspondent ; the specimens are good enough, but the pins are 

 inserted at all angles, and the moths themselves are perfectly flat set, or 

 their wings droop at such an angle as to touch the paper beneath them. 

 When these are placed in the cabinet, they contrast peculiarly with the 

 others, to the advantage of neither ; with the result that they have to 

 undergo the deteriorating effects of re-setting. This is, at the best, an 

 uncertain cure, for they are always liable to revert to their old condition. 

 High, flat setting, in my humble opinion, is the worst style of any, and 

 besides its unnatural appearance, affords a great loophole for the 

 introduction of foreigners as British. If a drawer is properly airtight 

 and kept well supplied with napthaline or camphor, mites are an 

 impossibility ; then why should we employ a method which detracts 

 from the beauty of our insects? When I receive these "skyed" 

 specimens, the only thing to be done is to shorten the pins beneath 

 them ; this is objectionable, for it renders them less easy of removal, 

 and, with black pins, is a matter to take into account. High, flat 

 setting seems to be the last resort of those whose cabinets are of the 

 worst description, where mites and other vermin roam at will about the 

 drawers, and are only kept at bay, like "the fox from the grapes," by the 

 height of the specimens above the paper. I imagine the perfection of 

 setting to be when the insect is arranged in a natural manner, with 

 wings sufficiently expanded to exhibit all the characters and markings, 

 not too flat nor yet too sloping, and also showing no trace of brace 



