146 ENTOMOI.OGICAL NEWS. [April, '15 



tion. In addition this support prevents the abdomen from 

 drooping in the process of drying (See Plate V, figures 12 

 and 13). 



The accompanying plate V illustrates the advantages to be 

 derived from utilizing a mount of this kind. In addition to 

 the specimen being rotatable about a longitudinal axis, the 

 dorsal surface of the thorax remains intact and one has an 

 unobstructed view of the insect. The specimen can also be 

 raised or lowered on the vertical pin, thereby eliminating one 

 of the great disadvantages of exchanging mounted specimens 

 (See figure 14). Another advantage is that a number of 

 specimens can be mounted on a single main support in the 

 area ordinarily occupied by one specimen. In this manner, 

 several thousand specimens can be made accessible in the 

 area usually required by several hundred. This is of consid- 

 erable advantage in shipping or moving collections or storing 

 mounted duplicates (See figure 9). 



Long-bodied insects are mounted as shown in figure 13, the 

 horizontal shaft acting as a support and replacing such sup- 

 ports as silver wires and bristles. Pairs can be mounted in 

 tandem or side by side on a single main support, thereby facili- 

 tating comparison (See figure 15). 



Extra label pins are not required when this new pin is used, 

 inasmuch as the vertical pin can carry a label that will not 

 be obscured by the insect (See figure 11). In moving speci- 

 mens from one case to another both label and insect are car- 

 ried in one operation. Lepidoptera are spread in the usual 

 way and the inventor claims that it requires no additional 

 time to mount insects on this pin after one has been shown 

 the simple method of using it. It is readily adaptable for all 

 sizes of insects and certainly deserves more than passing at- 

 tention from entomologists. Figures i to 5 show the old 

 methods of pinning and figures 6 to 15 the improved methods. 



[An exhibit of insects mounted on these new pins was shown in 

 connection with the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of 

 America at Philadelphia in the closing days of last December. As the 

 method aroused our interest and as only a brief account of Mr. Mead's 

 pin has been published (Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc. xxii, 76), we requested 

 Mr. Weiss to describe it. We are informed that the pins can be ob- 

 tamed from Mr. Mead at 382 River Drive, Passaic Park, New Jersey. 

 — Ed.] 



