OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 35 



each angle or corner. Delicate flies and moths which it will not do 

 to fasten with mucilage, may first be mounted on very fine pins, (Nos. 

 19 and 20, made by Eddleston & Williams, Crown Court, Cheapside, 

 London, are very fine and excellent,) or on silver wires, and these in- 

 serted into one end of little strips of cork or pith, through the other 

 end of which a No. 3 or 4 Klaeger pin passes to secure the specimen 

 in the cabinet. Pith for this use should be dense, and that of Worm- 

 wood {Artemisia) or Mullein ( Veriascum) will be found best. By 

 this means the proper height is preserved, and the inconvenience and 

 vexation of handling such very fine pins obviated. Some, who have 

 plenty of time and patience to spare, throw their beetles into warm 

 water, and, while all the parts are limp, fasten them by the legs on to 

 card board coated with tragacanth, which, in drying, secures the 

 beetle without discoloring the paper. The paper is afterward cut up 

 into squares and pinned. 



Many Coleopterists prefer to use separate slips of card-board, cut 

 into isosceles triangles, crosswise on to the narrow tips of which the 

 specimens are gummed with a cement of inspissated ox-gall, gum 

 arable and water, as recommended by Dr. LeConte ; but, though more 

 of the underside of the beetle is in this manner left exposed, I find 

 my own method much the most convenient. 



Many English entomologists use short pins, very much like those 

 of ordinary make, and my late friend Walsh never gave up the custom, 

 and most vehemently opposed the use of what he ridiculed as "long 

 German skewers." But the only advantage that can possibly be 

 claimed for the short pins is that they are less apt to bend, are conse- 

 quently more easily stuck into the bottoms of boxes, and require less 

 room; while, compared with the long pins, they have numerous disad- 

 vantages. Long pins admit of the very important advantage of at- 

 taching notes and labels to the specimen ; render it more secure from 

 injury when handled, and from museum pests in the cabinet; and on 

 them several rows of carded duplicates may be fastened, one under 

 the other, so as to economize room. 



I have seen few old collections in better condition than that of 

 M. E. Mulsant, of Lyons, France; and he uses iron wire, cut slant- 

 ingly of the requisite length — a common custom in France. These 

 wires bend so easily and have such dull points that they require much 

 more careful manipulation than the pins, and the claim made for them 

 that they do not verdigris, would, perhaps, not hold good near the 

 sea. Silver wire, or silver-plated wire, is used for the same purpose. 



For the proper setting of insects with broad and flattened wings, 

 such as butterflies and moths, a spreading board or stretcher is neces- 

 sary. One that is simple and answers every purpose is shown at figure 

 19. It may be made of two pieces of thin white-wood or pine board, 

 fastened together by braces, especially at the ends, and left wide 

 enough apart to admit the bodies of the insects to be spread : strips 



