ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &c. 531 
blotting-paper after immersion, and begin your ope- 
rations, selecting the largest first. The pin should be 
stuck through the middle of the right-hand elytrum?, 
and about one third of its whole length should emerge 
above the insect. Some foreign collectors, probably 
having in view its more convenient examination with a 
microscope under the glass of a drawer, bring it nearer 
the head of the pin: while the Engizsh ones, on the con- 
trary, studying the most ornamental position of their 
specimens, leave only enough of the point free to fix 
them safely in their drawers®. Both these methods are 
open to objection. When the insect is too near the head 
of the pin, it is difficult to fix it in your cabinet without 
bending the wire; and there is danger, without great 
care, of injuring the specimen when you put it in or take 
itout. Again: When the legs of your insect rest on the 
surface they collect the dust and*ditt, are very liable to 
be broken, and the length of the pin above it is incon- 
venient when you have occasion to examine any one 
under a lens. Lepidoptera, however, which are never 
thus examined, may always be transfixed in this way, 
which sets them off to the greatest advantage. 
Some insects, especially of the beetle tribe, are so ex- 
tremely minute that it is next to an impossibility to get 
a pin through them without injuring, and often destroy- 
ing them. By using fine needles, or very slender pins 
manufactured on purpose, this difficulty might per- 
haps be surmounted; but the needles will be subject to 
rust, and the pins, I know by experience, cannot be 
* Prate XXIV. Fic. 8. 
> In the figure just quoted the artist has represented the insect 
as transfixed in this way. 
2M 2 
