METHODS OF PRESERVING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS, 3 
separate box, touching the bottom of it with a 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 temporary 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 antenne. A 
board covered with a coating of cork must be provided, in which there are grooves running 
across of greater or lesser depth. The insect may then he fixed by the pin into the groove ac- 
cording 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 hoard 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 posi- 
tion required, but not so close as to injure the delicate scales of the wings. In a 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 pre- 
served. 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 each 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 it 
may 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 Caterpillars 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 Caterpillars, difficult to discover in any 
other way,may thus be 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 Cater- 
pillars 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 Butter- 
flies 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 Lichen-feeders, and those that feed in cases—concealed like those of the 
Caddis-worm in particles of decayed wood or dead leaves, will have to be looked for very care- 
* This remedy was first mentioned in a very charming little periodical, entitled “ Recreative Science,” which 
is always full of useful information. 
