150 ZOOLOGY. 



may be readily taken by making a pile of this material and looking tlirougli 

 it in the course of a day or two. Some species which live in moist places, 

 or beneath the sand along the margins of water courses, can be driven from 

 their retreats by dashing up water with the hand. Hosts of small species 

 are found amongst the grass, from which they may be swept with a canvas 

 net attached to a stout wire ring twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, and 

 fixed in a handle about two feet long. The canvas and fixtures must be 

 sufficiently strong to allow- briers and other rough vegetation to be swept 

 without injury to it. A great many species are attracted by a light at night. 

 When captured, Coleoptera (and other insects which are not readily injured) 

 should be put into small short vials in which a little paper has been put to 

 allow them to cling to, but predaceous ones should be put into a bottle with 

 a little ether in it, as they would destroy the others. For the smaller kinds 

 a bottle must be provided with a quill (to be closed with a stopper) inserted 

 through the cork, through which they are to be passed into the bottle, to 

 prevent the inmates from escaping Mdien a new prisoner is to be added.. 

 These may be killed by having a little paper in the vial moistened with 

 ether, or by immersing the whole in hot water. 



Each sj)ecimen should have a pin of a suitable size passed vertically 

 through the right wing cover, to within less than half an inch of the head. 

 When an insect is too small to have a pin passed through it, this must be 

 stuck through the large end of a small triangle or wedge of thin card, about 

 one fourth of an inch long, and one sixteenth of an inch wide at the large 

 end, the opposite end being pointed. Upon the upper surface of the point 

 of this card, small insects must be gummed, and in such a position that the 

 pin being vertical and upon the right, and the point of the card towards the 

 left side, the insect must cross it at right angles, the right elj'tron being 

 towards the pin, and the abdomen towards the manipulator, and this 

 position must be preserved in the cabinet. The guin used must be gum 

 arable, with a little starch and inspissated ox gall, this being indispensable 

 to prevent the gum from flying with the extremes of temperature, and it is 

 sufliciently adhesive to prevent insects from being jarred loose by touching 

 the pins. The same material is to be used in mending insects. The pins 

 used for the small cards should be small No. 1 of the German manufac- 

 turers, and in general thin pins should be preferred. When insect pins 

 cannot be procured, the ordinary kinds may be used, but in this case a great 

 many specimens must be attached to cards. If pins are subsequently pro- 

 cured, the carded insects may be placed for a few hours in a closed vessel 

 of moist sand, when they can be detached, and will be sufliciently relaxed 

 to allow them to be pinned without breaking the antennae and feet. 



Specimens are to be arranged in horizontal rows on the drawers of a 

 cabinet, made with every joint close. The drawers for the Coleoptera of 

 the United States may be from twenty to twenty-four in number, of a size 

 to allow a glazed cover to each, of ten by twelve inch glass, the frame of 

 which should both enter about half an inch within, and i)roject over the 

 edge of the drawer on the four sides, to give double security to the joint. 

 This frame should be carefully fitted before the drawer is put in. The 

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