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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



I find this a very important point in mounting dry Lepidop- 

 tera, but care must be taken not to allow the glue to soak 

 through and deface the upper surface. For spreading Lepi- 

 doptera make a number of setting boards, with grooves for 

 the reception of body and legs. These grooves should be 

 wide enough to freely admit the body and folded legs, the flat 

 portion of boards on which the wings are to rest should have 

 a slight inclination upward toward the outer side. These 

 boards should be made of soft pine, with a strip of cork glued 

 along bottom of groove, in which the point of pin should 

 rest. About one-fifth of the pin should project above the 

 body of the insect. All specimens should be pinned at the 

 same height on the pin, to secure uniformity in the appear- 

 ance of the collection. Individual tastes differ as the height 

 the insect should be placed on the pin and also as to the angle 

 of the wings, but my experience has been that is is best to 

 place them as high as possible, so as to allow enough of the 

 pin to project above the body to make moving the specimen 

 easy and safe. The specimens should always be handled with 

 insect forceps, w T hich can be procured of John Akhurst, of 

 Brooklyn, N*. Y. Good insect pins can be procured from 

 Ferd. Wagner, optician, Cincinnati, Ohio. Boxes and drawers 

 to contain the collection are of different sizes and shapes, but 

 should be as tight as possible. For Coleoptera, Hemiptera, 

 Diptera and Hymenoptera a box 9x12 is about the right size, 

 while for Lepidoptera a draw r er 18x20 inches is preferable. 

 My collection of North American Coleoptera is contained in 

 105 boxes, made of well-seasoned pine, with a rabbit on which 

 the lid shuts down very tightly ; the top and bottom are two- 

 ply pine veneers, cross-grained, glued together. The inside 

 is shellaced and the bottom is covered with a sheet of com- 

 pressed cork, which is very poor stuff, indeed, as some of the 

 sheets are almost as hard as an oak plank. This stuff is pre- 

 pared in New Jersey, and has given me much trouble. While 

 sheet cork does not look so neat, 3 T et it is a more practicable 

 material. The outside of the pine Coleoptera boxes are 

 finished in hard oil. The lids are hinged on, and the box is 

 held shut with a brass hook at each end. The}* make a very 

 useful box, if well made. None of mine have ever cracked. 

 They were made in Cincinnati. To have the boxes and 



