106 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



altogether the inflated skin looks but a wretched caricature of 

 its original self. By this operation, too, the skin becomes 

 very brittle, and unless great care is taken the hair is very 

 likely to be singed, or ihe skin scorched to a beautiful brown 

 tint. These, however, are but minor objections, the chief 

 one seeming to me to lie in the undue extension and rigidity 

 of the body. Perhaps where 1 have failed in getting satisfac- 

 tory results, more skilful operators might succeed; but even 

 those u)useum specimens which 1 have seen preserved in this 

 way seem open to the same faults. 



The method I have found to produce the best results I was 

 induced to adopt from a paragraph in ' Science Gossip,' 

 page 234, 1872. Tiie plan consists of injection with white 

 wax. Paraffin wax is what 1 use injected into the skin after 

 the contents have been removed, as Mr. Auld describes. The 

 wax is melted by being placed in a vessel immersed in hot 

 water, and then injected into the empty skin by a syringe, 

 having a very fine orifice, which is inserted into the anal 

 opening. A piece of cotton, slipped round the last pair of 

 claspers, should be held by the fingers against the syringe to 

 prevent the larva slipping off, which it is very liable to do, and 

 thereby spoil the operation. The melted wax must be urged 

 very gradually into the skin, until the exterior is plump and 

 full, but not so full as to distend any part in an unnatural 

 manner. The skin should be held to the syringe till the wax 

 becomes hard enough not to run out, and at the same time 

 pliable enough to yield to the fingers, so that any impressions, 

 indentations, or other markings requisite can be made, and 

 the juncture of the segments run round with a blunt knife, 

 lightly or deeply, as the subject ma}' require. The larva can 

 be curled or bent round, the head drawn back as in Vinula, 

 or the front segments pushed together as in some of the 

 Sphinges. The Geometer larvae can be bent into their natural 

 form ; warts, humps, &c., brought into full relief; claspers and 

 legs arranged to satisfaction ; and, in short, all the fantastic 

 forms which adorn the exterior of this magazine, imitated 

 to an almost exact copy of Nature, — all which results are quite 

 unattainable with the inflation system. 



In preserving larvae in this way, the principal points to 

 guard against are as follows : — Too rapidly or vigorously 

 filling u]) the skin, in which case the wax may burst through 



