Collecting and Preserving Insects 



Fig. 260. — Spreading board for 

 Lepidoptera. (After Riley.) 



should have both pairs of wings spread. For this purpose a 



spreading board is necessary. 

 Excellent spreading boards are 

 for sale by the dealers but very 

 good ones can readily be made. 

 The spreading board in use for 

 Lepidoptera will answer admir- 

 ably for any of these insects. 

 One is shown at Fig. 260 and 

 needs no extended description 

 except to state that the central 

 grove in which the body of the 

 insect rests should be bottomed with cork or some soft sub- 

 stance into which the pin can be inserted. 

 While spreading, the time required for 

 drying must be determined by experi- 

 ment for a given locality and given time 

 of the year since it depends upon the 

 dryness of the atmosphere. 



Insects which are too small to pin 

 are preferably mounted upon little trian- 

 gular cardboard tags. They are glued 

 to the tip of the triangle, the pin being 

 thrust through the base. White shellac 

 or yellow shellac are good substances to 

 use for the glueing. Most of those minute 

 insects may be mounted to advantage on the side with the 



back away from the pin, 

 and it is generally ad- 

 visable to mount them 

 with the side upper- 

 most. It must be re- 

 membered that while an 

 insect has one back and 

 one belly it has two 

 sides. Punches for cut- 

 ting tags for this purpose 

 may be purchased from 

 the dealers. After the insect is pinned and dried great care 

 should be taken with the labelling. In all cases the date and 



402 



Fig. 261. — Insect 

 mounted on card- 

 board triangle. (After 

 Riley.) 



Fig. 262. — Insect punch for cutting triangles or 

 points. (After Riley.) 



