PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 



57 



may be able to stand on their dried legs, but it will gen- 

 erally be safer to mount them, with the aid of a drop 

 of glue, so that the thorax will touch the glass. If it be 

 desired to have them stand higher, glue a little post of 

 the right length, — a bit of broom, splint, or cork, — to the 

 thorax, or thrust a point of a toothpick (dipped in ink) 

 into the thorax from below and cut it off as high as you 

 wish the insect to stand, and glue this to the glass of 

 the permanent case. With beetles and grasshoppers it is 

 well to raise one wing cover so that the wing below may 

 be seen. 



Caterpillars and grubs and larvae of various sorts may 

 be mounted in several ways. First, to prepare dried 

 skins lay the dead caterpillar on a blotter, and using a 

 lead pencil for a roller, begin at the head and gently roll 

 the viscera out. The flattened skin may then either be 

 pressed as we would a flower, until it is dry, or inflated 

 with a blowpipe and dried over a lamp.^ If the larva 

 is green, it will turn yellow in drying, and the color may 

 be imitated by shaking into it a little green chalk or Paris 

 green. Mosquito wrigglers and similar larvse may be 

 allowed simply to dry on the glass of the mounting case in 



1 The blowpipe for this purpose is made from a small glass tube drawn 

 to a moderately fine point, three or four inches long. Slip over the open 

 end a piece of small rubber tubing about a foot long, for a mouthpiece. 

 By cutting off the intestine about a quarter of an inch behind the body 

 and blowing sharply at the cut, it will open up, and the whole caterpillar 

 will be inflated ; keep blowing and slip the intestine over the end of the 

 blowpipe ; it will soon stick fast to the glass, and by holding it over 

 a lamp, high enough not to scorch, and keeping it inflated, the skin will dry 

 in a few minutes. If the blowing is too tiresome, the blowpipe may be 

 attached to a " dying pig " or a toy rubber balloon, the inflation of which 

 will keep up a constant pressure until the skin is dry. 



