METHODS OF PRESERVING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTIIS. 199 
passed through the thorax from the upper side, between the wings, in a perfectly upright position, passing 
through to a sufficient extent to allow of the insect being firmly pinned to the bottom of the cork-lined box. The 
same process will be followed in all subsequent captures, taking care not to place the specimens too close 
together in the box. 
Some collectors put each insect, if a particularly fine specimen, or very rare species, into a separate box, 
touching the bottom of it witlta single drop of chloroform, which has been found to prevent any return of 
sensation, or any fluttering of the wings by which their beauty might be seriously injured. 
On arriving at home, the insects should be carefully set out in the form they are intended to retain 
permanently, and this should necessarily be done before the insects finally stiffen, or it becomes difficult to 
manage them so well, though an exposure to the steam arising from a cup of hot water will generally restore a tem- 
porary limpness. The process of “setting out” must, of course, be done with neatness and care, so as not to injure 
the wings, or break the antennw. A board covered with a coating of cork mast be provided, in which there 
ave grooves running across of greater or lesser deyith. The insect may then be fixed by the pin into the groove 
according to the thickness of the body. The body of a Butterfly being generally small, the groove need not be deep. 
The wings are then to be spread out on the board on either side, level with the body and fully expanded. They 
are to be fixed in that position by means of strips of thin and very smooth cardboard, pinned down over them 
sufficiently close to hold them in the position required, but not so close as to injure the delicate scales of the 
wings. Ina few days the insect will have stiffened in the position in which it has been fixed as described, and 
which it will permanently retain. It should then be removed to the cabinet in which it is to be preserved. In 
order to preserve the specimens in a cabinet from the attacks of minute parasitic insects, a small piece of camphor 
is generally fixed in the corner of cach drawer. If what is called the grease should attack the insects in a 
cabinet, the best mode of restoring the insects attacked to their original condition is the following. The grease 
generally appears in large-bodied Moths or Butterflies, giving the bodies the appearance of having been soaked 
in oil ; and this appearance soon spreads to the wings, utterly destroying the beauty of the specimens. To 
restore an insect thus attacked, fix it on a piece of cork weighted with lead, or something heavy, and place it at the 
bottom of a saucer or any similar vessel. Then fill the saucer with benzone,* entirely covering the insect, which 
will not be injured by the wetting. After five minutes itmay be taken out, and the benzone, being an absorber 
of grease, will carry off the oily matter in the course of its own evaporation, which is very rapid. The insect will 
then become as beautiful as when first ‘‘set out,” and may be replaced in the cabinet. 
The collection of Caterpillars may be commenced as soon as the leaves begin to appear, and may be 
continued till the end of September or October, as there are many double-brooded species, the second hatch of Cater- 
pillars of which appears about the time last named, Chrysalides of which remain dormant through the winter. 
Detached trees may be well shaken after a white table-cloth has been spread beneath, and a number of Cater- 
pillars, difficult to discover in any other way, may be thus secured. Hedgerows may be beaten over an inverted 
umbrella for the same purpose. A careful search among low-growing plants will, however, be necessary to secure 
other species, and a plant that exhibits symptoms of having been eaten by Caterpillars should sometimes be pulled 
up by the roots, and the root well examined, as the night-feeding Caterpillars often take shelter beneath the 
surface of the soil during the day, and conceal themselves among the loose roots ; or they may sometimes be found 
hidden among the decayed leaves about the base of the main stalk of the plant. The Caterpillars of most of 
the Meadow brown Butterflies and many Moths, are grass-feeders, and yet meadow after meadow might be looked 
over in vain for a single larva, as in almost all cases they belong to the night-feeding class just alluded to. The 
truly magnificent Caterpillar of the Sword-grass Moth is, doubtless, a night-feeder, which accounts for its seeming 
rarity, few specimens having been seen by Entomologists. The Caterpillars that feed within the stems of plants, 
all belonging to the Moth family, are still more difficult to find, but their internal ravages may generally be 
traced by the paler or yellower green of the branch or stem, the sap of which is being consumed by an intruder ; 
and on opening the branch he will be discovered at work ; but it is better to leave him till his full growth is 
attained, marking the stem in some way so as to recognise it easily. The Leaf-rollers, Leaf-miners, and Bark and 
* This remedy was first mentioned in a very charming little periodical, entitled ‘* Recreative Science,” whichis always full 
of useful information, 
