Introduction. xlvii 



the best effect for display, on frames called setting-boards or saddles, which we shall presently 

 proceed to describe ; but if this operation is not performed immediately after death, we shall 

 find that the insect cannot be set, in consequence of its fluids having dried up, which renders it 

 stiff and brittle. Specimens in this condition require to be relaxed before they can be set. 



Relaxing. — Tliis may be effected in various ways, but insects which are undergoing this 

 process must be examined every day, and set as soon as they are sufficiently soft for the wings 

 to be fully opened out without more pressure than would be required to open the win"-s of a 

 recently dead specimen. If left longer they are liable to become mouldy or rotten. For relaxing 

 insects, some collectors use a wide-mouthed glass-stoppered bottle half filled with chopped 

 laurel-leaves (which may also be used for killing insects), lined with cork on the upper part, on 

 which the insects are pinned ; but it is simpler to relax them with water. For this purpose a 

 piece of cork, with the insects stuck upon it, may be floated in a basin of water, over which 

 a cloth is tied to prevent the vapour from escaping. Another convenient method is to use a 

 tin box, partly filled with damp sand or sawdust, on which some clean white blotting-paper 

 is laid, and to place the insects on this. The box should then be put on the chimney-piece, 

 and left there till the specimens are sufficiently relaxed. The water should not be allowed 

 to touch the insects, or it will be liable to injure their colours ; and white, blue, green, or 

 metallic colours are more liable to suffer in this way than any others. Some collectors touch 

 large insects with alcohol to facilitate their relaxing, applying it to the under side of the 

 thorax, and the roots of the wings beneath. If an insect requires re-pinning, it can 

 sometimes (if large) be slipped off the old pin without difficulty ; but if it is too tightly fixed 

 upon it, it must be put into the relaxing box for a short time. The thorax may be damped 

 with a camel's-hair brush dipped in diluted alcohol till the pin is sufficiently loosened; but it 

 is perhaps better to relax the insect altogether, and, if necessary, to re-set it. If it is loose 

 on the new pin, a slight touch of gum on the lower side, just where the pin is inserted, will 

 be sufficient to fix it. 



Setting-boards are made of long strips of deal, varying in width, according to the size of 

 the insects which are intended to be expanded on them. There must always be a groove 

 in the middle, lined at the bottom with cork, to receive the body of the insect ; and the sides 

 are frequently also constructed of cork, which is absolutely necessary when the specimens are 

 to be set with braces. English setting-boards are generally made with sloping sides, so as to 

 give the insect a rounded appearance when set. The sides are frequently covered with unsized 

 paper ; and some collectors rule them across with transverse lines, to assist the eye in getting 

 the wings exactly even on both sides. They may be of any convenient length, say about a 

 foot, and are often made to .slide into a frame called a setting-house, which has a handle at 

 the top to allow of its being carried about, a door fitted with a sheet of perforated zinc to 

 admit the air, and a drawer at the bottom divided into several compartments for pins and 

 braces. This is sometimes combined with a store-box, or is constructed to serve at once as a 

 setting-house and a receptacle for the various articles required for the outfit of the collector. 

 A number of setting-boards will be required, varying in width from half an inch to six 

 inches. This will be amply sufficient for even the largest European species, for neither the 

 Death's Head nor the Great Peacock Moth exceed si.x inches in expanse at the utmost ; but 

 collectors who receive unset specimens from abroad will occasionally require setting-boards 

 of larger size, even up to a foot in breadth. Flat setting-boards may easily be made by 

 cutting a groove of any required depth down the middle of a piece of wood, and gluing a 

 strip of cork along the bottom of the groove ; and the smallest moths cannot well be set on 



