ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 551 



of preserving caterpillars, so that his specimens retain 

 their colours and other attributes, and look as if they 

 were alive. I am not acquainted with his process, but 

 the following will answer very well. The animal must 

 first be killed by immersion in spirits of wine ; next you 

 must eviscerate it, which is best effected by gradual pres- 

 sure of the finger and thumb. You must begin at the 

 head, and so proceed till all the fluid contents of the 

 body have passed out at the anus, which you may enlarge 

 with a fine pair of scissors, being careful not to injure 

 the anal prolegs. When you have cleared the skin as 

 much as possible, introduce a fine glass tube, or a piece 

 of hay or slender straw into the anus, round which, as 

 near to the extremity as may be, pass loosely a fine 

 thread : then blowing through the tube, when the skin is 

 fully inflated withdraw it, at the same time pulling the 

 thread tight and securing it by a knot. The caterpillar 

 will now exhibit its proper shape and colours ; to retain 

 which, all that is necessary is to hold it near the flame of 

 a lamp until perfectly dry, which will be in a few mi- 

 nutes, when it may be placed in the cabinet along with 

 the imago to which it belongs a . 



Although a very large proportion of the insect inha- 

 bitants of any country may be captured in their perfect 

 state by the active Entomologist, yet there is no small 

 number of them that probably he may never meet with 

 in that state, and to secure which he must have recourse 

 to other methods. He can procure pupa by digging for 



3 Some other methods arc recommended by Mr. Samouelle, which 

 the reader will find in his Useful Compendium, 318. 



