HANDBOOK OF BEETLES. 39 



plied, frequent grass, flowers, and trees ; and others, again, Veed 

 on dung and other decaying substances. Many beetles fly little, 

 and most of those which do have a heavy flight, and are very 

 easy to capture. 



Having collected your beetles, you have next to set them, and 

 it is always better to do so as soon as possible after they are 

 killed ; but if they have become too stiff, or if you are unable 

 to set them immediately, they should be dropped into a jar half 

 filled with chopped laurel, which must not be allowed to get 

 mouldy. Those in spirit will keep for some time, but it is 

 always better to set everything as soon as possible. 



Large beetles must be pinned through the right wing-case, 

 and their legs and antennae spread out and kept in as natural 

 a position as possible by means of pins, which must not be 

 thrust through any part of the insect, but merely used to fix the 

 limbs in position. Common pins are too thick and stiff for 

 entomological use ; but proper insect pins can be purchased of 

 any dealer in objects of natural history. It is not customary to 

 spread the wings of beetles. Smaller beetles may be gummed on 

 cards, their limbs arranged in a natural position, and left to dry. 

 The gum used is prepared of gum tragacanth, to which a little 

 gum arable and acetic acid has been added. It is better to rule 

 cards into sections of equal shape and size, and to mount a beetle 

 on each ; they can then be cut up afterwards. The cards used 

 in England are cut into an oblong form, but those employed on 

 the Continent are long and pointed, the beetle being often 

 mounted at the very tip. The former method has the neatest 

 appearance in the cabinet. The boxes used to keep insects in 

 are generally made double, like a backgammon board, and are 

 lined top and bottom with cork. A little camphor or solid 

 naphthaline must be kept in each box, to drive away mites. The 

 collector will find it useful to keep some record of his captures, 

 and the shortest way is to write a reference number beneath each 

 card, or to stick a small ticket on the pin bearing a date corre- 

 sponding with the entries in his journal, thus i885> 7, 10 (July 

 10, 1885). This arrangement secures the utmost brevity, with 

 perfect facility of reference ; for next year you will begin again 

 in the same way, and thus avoid a long row of figures. 



But now, having got together the nucleus of a collection of 

 British beetles, how are you to begin to classify them ? We 

 have about 3,000 different kinds of beetles in this country, and 

 at first sight it would seem to be a hopeless task to set about 

 finding the name of any particular beetle ; yet, as everything 

 known about beetles is registered according to the name of each, 



