538 ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &c. 
of preserving caterpillars, so that his specimens retain 
their colours and other attributes, and look as if they 
were alive. I am not acquainted with his process, but 
the following will answer very well.—The animal must 
first be killed by immersion in spirits of wine; next you 
must eviscerate it, which is best effected by gradual pres- 
sure of the finger and thumb. You must begin at the 
head, and so proceed till all the fluid contents of the 
body have passed out at the anus, which you may enlarge 
with a fine pair of scissors, being careful not to injure 
the anal prolegs. When you have cleared the skin as 
much as possible, introduce a fine glass tube, or a piece 
of hay or slender straw into the anus, round which, as 
near to the extremity as may be, pass loosely a fine 
thread : then blowing through the tube, when the skin is 
fully inflated withdraw it, at the same time pulling the 
thread tight and securing it by a knot. ‘The caterpillar 
will now exhibit its proper shape and colours; to retain 
which, all that is necessary is to hold it near the flame of 
a lamp until perfectly dry, which will be in a few mi- 
nutes, when it may be placed in the cabinet along with 
the imago to which it belongs?. 
Although a very large proportion of the insect inha- 
bitants of any country may be captured in their perfect 
state by the active Kntomologist, yet there is no small 
number of them that probably he may never meet with 
in that state, and to secure which he must have recourse 
to other methods. He can procure pupe by digging for 
* Some other methods are recommended by Mr. Samouelle, which 
the reader will find in his useful Compendium, 318. 
