PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIliD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 957 



la the case of speciineus such as large Lepidopteia, Neuroptera 

 generally and others whose wings are to be spread out, it is usual to do 

 this on special setting-boards, which are usually made of parallel strips 

 of wood covered with papered cork sheet and with a space between 

 to receive the bodies of the insects. (Plate 154. fig. ;5), Setting- 

 boards are sometimes made with the corked side-pieces sloping slightly 

 upwards or curved downwards, but the best boards are flat and raised 

 about one inch above the bottom of the board to give plenty of room 

 to grasp the pin with the forceps below the insect when set. The 

 specimen to be set is first pinned through the middle of the thorax, 

 the pin being placed iqjright or slopmg forward very slightly, and 

 then pinned into the groove of the board so that the bases of the 

 wings are just above the level of the board. Two strips of moderately^ 

 thin glazed paper are then cut of a width aud length proportional 

 to the size of the board and one end of each strip is pinned onto the 

 end of the board in front of the insect whose wings are then stretched 

 dowTiwards and forwards until the hinder-margins of the forewings are 

 at right angles with the axis of the body ; the strip of paper is then 

 passed down over the fore-wings, the hindwings drawn up as necessary, 

 and the strip of paper pinned down to fix the wings in position. The 

 antennae (and legs, if necessary) should also be fastened into symmetri- 

 cal positions with pins, and the body fixed with pins into a position 

 parallel with the head and thorax. Both for the sake of dif^play in a 

 collection and for structural examination it is important that the wings 

 be sjDread out symmetrically and sufficiently ; a very common error 

 is to draw the forewings, especially in Lepidoptera, insufficiently 

 far forward, so that they are overlapped by the front portion of the 

 hindwings, with the result that it is impossible to examine satis- 

 factorily the structure of either pair of wings. As a general rule, the 

 forewings should be so placed that their hinder-margins are in a 

 straight line and the hind wings should be drawn up only so far as 

 not to overlaji the forewings. (Plate 151. fig. 3). 



Most insects are pimied through the thorax, except Coleoptera 

 (beetles) which are pinned through the right elytron (wing-case) and 

 Rhynchota (bugs) which are usually pinned through the scutellum. 

 (Plate 151. fig. 2). In cases where the thorax or scutellum bears special 

 characters (e.g., Chalcidids, many Rhynchota) the pin should be so 

 placed as not to destroy these characters ; in pinning a series of any 

 small insect, therefore, it is as well to pin a few specimens sideways 

 through the thorax, so as to retain the thoracic characters unimpaired. 



Earwigs, cockroaches, beetles, flies and bugs are u.sually left unset 

 although the wings and antennae may be displayed symmetrically 



