J 48 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



subject I maj' add this : — Take a corked zinc box (to be had of 

 any dealer) and pour into it sufficient water to saturate the cork 

 and then pour it off. When I receive, from a correspondent or 

 any other source, a really good and well-set insect (but not 

 cleaned) other than Geometrae or delicate species, I place it in this 

 box, and shutting down the lid, leave it for twenty-four hours or 

 more, according to size. It will then be sufficiently relaxed to 

 enable you to at least make an incision in the abdomen, and in 

 most cases to pick out some of the interior. Do not break off the 

 body then, but reset the insect, and when dry the body will 

 readily come off and be ready for the " wine-glass." It may be 

 objected that this resetting spoils the insect (certainly not if it 

 has been well set in the first instance) and is troublesome and 

 takes time. No doubt ; but I would rather have one spotless 

 specimen than fifty greasy ones. I agree, to a considerable 

 extent, with Mr. Christy's concluding remarks about the non- 

 necessity of removing the insects from the setting-boards before 

 they are thoroughly dry (though I should certainly do so in the 

 case of valuable insects), and that the " greasers " may be left 

 to some more convenient time ; but let me warn him against 

 leaving them till the grease reaches the thorax, of which more 

 anon. 



Mr. Arkle's system applies to the whole insect, and not the 

 body only. As regards his method in this case, I would suggest 

 that " prevention is better than cure," and that if he will kindly 

 try my plan, as I have endeavoured to explain it above, he will 

 save himself much expense and more trouble. But having 

 adopted his method of soaking, I am directed to place the insect 

 on a layer of plaster of Paris, and then cover the moth, wings and 

 all, with powder of the same an inch thick, the result being, " the 

 insect is clean and dry ; all its colours are restored ; no damage 

 has been done to it — not even to the antennae." And here I 

 bring forward my preliminary remark, that chalk is not only 

 unnecessary, but often injurious. My experience as to its use is 

 unfortunately in direct opposition to that of Mr. Arkle in every 

 particular. In early days I tried this method, not of course exactly 

 as here recommended, but according to the comparatively feeble 

 lights of the " fifties," when the cleaned bodies were filled with 

 cotton wool ! I have some antique specimens with the cotton wool 

 still in their bodies. Still the system was, in the main, the same 

 as Mr. Arkle's ; the " results " being, in my case, the cilia were 

 matted together, ditto the antennae, ditto the feathered abdomen ; 

 and the colours more or less blurred. The third of these 

 results was especially noticeable in the genus Dicranura. The 

 species in this genus are even now " puzzlers." With all the 

 modern improvements, I can never get the excavated body of a 

 furcula and bifida to look as well after as before the operation. 

 When therefore a common insect such as Cossus ligniperda or D 



