96 



APPENDIX B. COLLECTING } PlNNING, SETTING. 



On Card. This is a method of pinning flies ; a disc of card is taken, cut with a 

 20-bore gun-wad punch, and a fine (No. 20) pin passed through ; the pin is then 

 carefully pushed through the thorax of the fly from below, so that the point projects 



above. The card is then pinned with 

 a big pin in the opposite way (fig. K). 



The last method is used only for 

 Diptera ; gumming is used for small 

 Coleoptera ; staging for small Or- 

 thoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera y 

 medium Coleoptera, and for Hemip- 

 tera. Small Lepidoptera require special 

 pins. 



Many very small insects can only 

 be kept in small corked tubes ; the 

 inside of the corks should then be 

 dipped in a solution of naphthalene, in 

 benzene, or in carbolic acid. 



FIG. M. 



Paper cut for folding. 



Relaxing consists in keeping the specimen for 12 hours or more in a damp box till 

 rigor mortis has passed off and the wings, legs and antennae are flexible. A small 

 quantity of acetic or other acid in the box helps to preserve the colour. 



Setting Lepidoptera requires setting boards and one may adopt any of the 

 methods, high setting being perhaps the best after the manner of the British Museum. 



Other groups when pinned should have their legs and antenna} carefully arranged 

 so as to be natural and so as to be readily examined by a lens. 



Once an insect is mounted and dried, it is brittle and cannot easily be reset, so 

 the arrangement of the legs, antennse and wings is important. Specimens should be 

 as natural as possible. The wings of Neuroptera should be spread as in the case of 

 Lepidoptera. In grasshoppers the left wings of one specimen should bespread. Speci- 

 mens should be set in different ways, some with wings open, some with wings as they 

 are normally when at rest, the object being to display the insect and to preserve its 

 natural habit of body. Having set the speci- 

 mens, dry them. No insect should be stored 

 till it is perfectly dry and the lack of this 

 means a certainty of moulds sooner or later. 

 In the monsoon, a proper drying box contain- 

 ing calcium chloride or lime is very valuable, 

 if not essential. 



Labelling. 



A specimen without a label may be thrown 

 away, as it is useless. Labelling should be 

 done at once as there will then be no confusion. 

 It would be a good thing if all entomologists 

 labelled in the same way, and the best system 

 of labelling is as follows : 



The labels used are of stout white paper or thin card ; the number, date of capture, 

 name of food-plant, and locality are written on the label and at one side the name 

 of the collection. The collector's name is on a separate label if the specimen is sent to 



r 



FIG. N. 

 Moth or Butterfly in paper. 



