30 INTRODUCTION. 



Various kinds of nets are employed in collecting insects, 

 such as the flap-net, for catching insects on the wing, made 

 of fine gauze, resembling a bat-fowling net, and the sweeping 

 net, for catching insects on grass and low herbage, made of 

 strong canvas, and resembling a landing net. When secured, 

 the insects are either immediately pinned, or carried home 

 loose in quills or glass bottles. After they are killed and 

 pinned, their limbs are arranged in a natural position by 

 means of pins and bits of card, by which they are retained in 

 their places until they are dry enough to be placed in the 

 cabinet. Caterpillars are kept in boxes with gauze sides, 

 and fed with leaves of the peculiar plants upon which they 

 are found, until they assume the chrysahs state ; and in this 

 manner moths and butterflies are procured with their plumage 

 much more beautiful than when captured at large. Insects 

 which may have become stiff" before they have been dis- 

 played, are reathly relaxed by placing them upon damp sand 

 for a few hom-s. It is necessary that the store-boxes, or 

 cabinets, containing insects, should be kept in a dry situa- 

 tion, otherwise the specimens soon become mouldy. It is 

 not advisable to place them against an outside wall of an 

 apartment ; moreover, it is necessary that camphor should 

 be kept in little cells in the drawers, to prevent the attacks 

 of mites or other insects, especially the species of the Coleo- 

 pterous genus Anthrenus. 



The insects of this genus are deserving of attention, both 

 from the ravages which their larvae commit upon preserved 

 animal substances, objects of natural history, &c,, and from 

 the curious formation of the larvae themselves. Perhaps 

 there is nothing more cmuous amongst insects than that, 

 during the preparatory states of an animal, its habits should 

 be totally distinct from those of its adult state. The per- 

 fect Anthreni are generally found on flowers, preferring, as 

 we have often observed, those of mnbclhferous plants. They 



