56 Preservation of Animals, Birds, Fishes, fyc. 



(e.) Insects. — The hard shelled insects which have no hair may he 

 thrown into spirits of wine and in this manner killed. Butterflies 

 should be carefully taken between the thumb and finger by the breast 

 under the wings and pinched to death. All other insects must be 

 speedily killed by a needle or if this cannot be accomplished, they 

 should be exposed to a hot sun or fire. The needles must be suit- 

 ed to the size of the insect. Beetles, bugs and locusts should be 

 pierced through the cover of the right wing, just before the centre. 

 All other insects, as butterflies, bees, wasps, flies, he. should be 

 punctured through the middle of the neck. The head of the nee- 

 dle must be of sufficient length above the insect to be handled 

 with ease. The larger locusts, crickets, he. should be opened in 

 the abdomen, the viscera taken out and the cavity filled with cotton. 

 The chests, cases or apartments of the larger boxes are according 

 to the best construction about one foot in diameter on the inside, and 

 about the height of the largest needles. They must be made tight 

 and lined at the bottom with cork, or the like, and spread over with 

 arsenical soap before the insects are pinned on. The insects should 

 be very dry and stuck fast to the cork. The larger sorts should also 

 be secured by fastening pins, stuck about irregularly, so that in case 

 the bodies or heads should get loose, they may not roll among the 

 other insects. We should also avoid packing the large and small 

 kinds in the same chest. All the insects should be carefully secured 

 against moths, wood-borers and dust. The box should be filled with 

 clean insects, closed and covered on the outside with paper. The 

 smaller cases should be packed for transportation in larger boxes with 

 tow or the like. Very small insects may be killed in a drying glass 

 at the fire and be sent abroad packed in layers between cotton. 

 Hard-shelled insects may also be transported without needles, after 

 they are killed and wrapped in separate papers. Spiders, scorpions, 

 &c. are best transported in spirits of wine. 



Insects should be sought after chiefly under stones, mushrooms, 

 and the bark of trees, in rotten wood, mire, dead carcasses, water, he. 



(/.) Crustaceous animals. — Empty shells are commonly worth 

 little, on account of having lost their color. Those should be sought 

 in which the animal is alive, which should be killed in hot water and 

 permitted to putrefy if it can then be easily drawn from the shell. 

 In case of small snails this is not necessary. Naked snails or slugs, 

 worms, he. may be transported in spirits of wine. Land crustace- 

 ous animals should be sought for especially in shady places, streams 

 and bogs, and the fresh water species chiefly in mud or slime. 



