[79] COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 



ing its value. I raise each of the fore wings with a pin, and fix the pin against the 

 inner margin so as to keep them in position while I apply the braces. Half the 

 battle is really in the pinning. When an insect is planed through the exact center 

 of the thorax, with the pin properly sloped forward, the body appears to fall natu- 

 rally into its position on the setting board, and the muscles of the wings being left 

 free are easily directed and secured; but if the pin is not put exactly in the middle 

 it interferes with the play of the wings. Legs must be placed close against the 

 body or they will project and interfere with the set of the wings. Practice, care, and 

 a steady hand will succeed. When all the insects that have been killed are set the 

 contents of the canister will be found again ready, twenty minutes being amply 

 sufficient to expose to the fumes of ammonia. Very bright green or pale pink insects 

 should be killed by some other j)rocess, say chloroform, as ammonia will affect their 

 colors. 



Insects should be left on the setting boards a full week to dry; then the braces 

 may be carefully removed and they may be transferred to the store box. 



In my own experience I have found that a touch or two of the chlo- 

 roform brush on the pill-box containing small moths is sufficient to 

 either kill or so asphyxiate them that they can easily be mounted. I 

 have also fount! that strips of corn pith or even of soft cork, with 

 grooves cut into them, are very handy for the pinning and spreading, 

 and that by means of a small, broad-tipped, and pliable forcei3S the 

 smallest specimens can be deftly arranged in the groove and kept in 

 place until pinned. In fact, for all persons who have not very great 

 experience and dexterity this method is perhaps more to be recom- 

 mended than that of holding them between the thumb and fingers. 

 Where chloroform is used either to kill or deaden specimens, it is im- 

 portant that after they are once spread and in the drying box they 

 should be subjected to an additional asphyxiation, as the larger spe- 

 cies may revive and are apt to pull away from the holding strips, and thus 

 rub off their scales. 



Microlepidoptera, together with Microhymenoptera and Diptera may 

 be conveniently ]3inned on fine, short pins, and these thrust into an 

 oblong bit of cork or pith. This form of mounting has already been 

 described and is represented in figure 102. The neatest mounting of 

 Microlepidoptera which I have seen is the work of my assistant, 

 Mr. Albert Koebele, who mounts these insects on an oblong strip of 

 pith. This is very light and presents no difficulty in pinning. The strips 

 may be made of considerable length and both sexes may be pinned 

 on the same block (see Fig. 103). Most Lepidoptera present on the 

 under surface an entirely different aspect from that on the upper surface, 

 and, in such cases, it is a good plan to mount a number of specimens 

 obversely. 



Relaxing. — It will frequently be desirable to re- spread insects which 

 have been incorrectly mounted, or to spread specimens which 

 have been collected and stored in papers, or pinned and allowed to dry 

 without being prepared for the cabinet. Such specimens may be re- 

 laxed by placing them in a tight tin vessel half filled with moist sand 

 to which a little carbolic acid has been added to prevent molding. 

 Small specimens will be sufficiently relaxed to spread in twenty four 



