PRESERVING INSECTS. 
83 
a fine thread ; then blow through the tube, 
and when the skin is fully inflated, withdraw 
it, and at the same time pull the thread tight, 
and secure it by a knot. The caterpillar will 
now exhibit its proper shape and colours ; to 
retain which, all that is necessary, is to hold it 
near a fire or candle until perfectly dry, which 
will be in a few minutes. Another method is, 
when the contents of the body are removed as 
above, to fill the skin with very fine dry sand ; 
by this means the insect is brought to its 
natural shape ; in a few hours the skin will 
dry, and the sand may be shaken out. Cater- 
pillars thus prepared, may be either pierced 
with pins or gummed on strips of card. They 
may also be preserved, without any further 
preparation, by merely suspending them from 
the cork in a phial filled with weak spirits of 
wine. The phial should be closely stopped, 
and the cork dipped in wax. Mr. Sells says 
that those “ that have been long immersed in 
spirits and thereby much hardened, admit of 
being opened, stuffed with cotton and dry very 
successfully.” When caterpillars, either from 
their rarity or otherwise, cannot be preserved, 
a coloured drawing should always be made of 
them when in their last skin. 
The shells of chrysalides have merely to be 
