118 COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS. 



cond is to bend them so as to touch the drawer ; the first 

 is the continental, the second the English plan. In setting 

 insects with expanded wings, a piece of stiff card, pinned 

 through with a stout pin, supports the wings from below ; 

 another similar piece is placed on the wings above ; the 

 two pieces holding the wing immovably fixed, (see the fi- 

 gure at the head of this chapter) : the legs are held in their 

 places by a bent pin. In Lepidoptera, Diptera, Hymen- 

 optera, some Orthoptera, and in Neuroptera, the wings are 

 thus spread, but not in Coleoptera. In Coleoptera the ha- 

 bit would generally be totally destroyed by opening and 

 spreading out the wings : insects of this class, and also ge- 

 nerally those of the class Hemiptera, are set with the wings 

 and wing-cases quietly folded in the usual position on their 

 backs; the legs and antennas, however, are carefully placed, 

 and arranged by means of the bent pins. The bent pins 

 are reduced to this more convenient shape by means of an 

 instrument somewhat resembling a pair of pliers ; it was 

 invented by Mr. George Waring, of Bristol, and is now very 

 commonly employed by entomologists : the old plan was, 

 to fasten a foot in its place by a small card brace. 



For all the operations of preserving insects, nicely corked 

 setting-boards, about a foot square, should be prepared, 

 and on these all the insects should remain until perfectly 

 dry and stiff; after which, if kept in a warm room, there is 

 little danger of their receiving any injury. These setting- 

 boards should slide into a case, one above another, to the 

 number of six or seven : the sides of this case should be 

 made of mahogany, but the back and front must be covered 

 with wire-gauze, or some other material equally adapted 

 for the free passage of air ; a matter of very great impor- 

 tance, for if insects are placed in a cabinet before they are 

 thoroughly dried, they speedily become disfigured with 

 mould, and are moreover much more liable to the attacks 



