THE METHODS OF SETTING AND LABELLING 

 LEPIDOPTERA FOR MUSEUMS. 



By E. B. PouLTON, M.A., F.R.S., Hope Professor of Zoology in the 

 University of Oxford. 



T TNTIL quite recent years the method of setting butterflies 

 and moths adopted in this country differed very widely 

 from that which prevailed and still prevails on the Continent. 

 Furthermore, the continental method has been uniform, while 

 the British has varied in many directions, according to the 

 taste of different distinguished collectors, each of whom may 

 be said to have founded a fashion which endured for a time 

 and over a more or less limited area. 



In continental setting very long (i| inches or more, and 

 inconveniently flexible for use with a cork lining to the drawer) 

 foreign pins are used ; the insect being pierced so that the pin is 

 as. nearly as possible upright. The insect is raised on the pin so 

 that a length of only from J^ to | of an inch projects above 

 the dorsal surface of the thorax. The wings are extended on 

 flat boards, the object being to render them as horizontal as 

 possible. The margin of the fore wing which overlaps the hind 

 wing (inner margin) is placed at a right angle to the long axis 

 of the body, and therefore in a line with the corresponding 

 part of the opposite fore wing. This arrangement involves, in 

 the great majority of Lepidoptera, a strained or unnatural 

 appearance, owing to the fore wing being drawn so far 

 forward — an effect which is sometimes increased by drawing 



