SETTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 
319 
Coleoptf.ra, Ortiioptera, and IIemipteha. — The preservation of 
these Orders is attended with very little difficulty. 
They are easily killed by immersion in scalding water, and upon 
‘>eing withdrawn should be thrown on a sheet of blossom or blotting 
Paper to extract as much as possible the water: or they may be killed 
hy exposing them in a tin box with a little camphor in it to the heat 
°1 a fire, which treatment will add greatly to their preservation. Those 
the Meloe and Gryltus Gcncnt, which have lull and tender bodies, 
ar e subject to shrivel after death : to preserve them, make an incision 
u " the under part of the abdomen, take out the entrails with a blunt 
pen or probe, and fill the cavity with cotton. 
Specimens of Coleoptera that are required to be set with the wings 
displayed, should have the elytra separated and the pin passed through 
the body near the thorax, as at pi. 12. Jig. 2; the wings are to be dis- 
posed as in the act of flying, and kept in this situation until perfectly 
dry with the card braces b and c ; insects of these Orders should never 
•lave the pin passed through the thorax, but through the right elytron 
on the right side, as shown at pi. 12. fig. 1 : the legs, antennae, and 
palpi should be placed out in a natural position on the setting boards, 
and kept so by pins and braces, for a longer or shorter time, according 
lo the size of the insect and state of the weather. No insect must be 
placed in the cabinet until it is perfectly dry. Minute insects should 
be fixed on slips of card, as at pi. 12. Jig. 5 anil 6, with gum, previous 
to which the legs, kc. should be extended, for future examination : tri- 
angular slips of card are to be preferred, as no greater portion of the 
insect should be hid than what is absolutely necessary to fix it to the 
t-’ard, as at Jig. a. 
Lepidoptera. — B uUerJlies are soon killed if a pin is passed through 
the thorax; but many of the Sphinges and large Moths are difficult to 
kill, being very tenacious of life. Mr. Haworth in his Lepidoptera Bri- 
tannica, in his observations on Bomuvx Cosms, remarks, that “ the 
usual way of compressing the thorax is not sufficient : they will live 
several days after the most severe pressure has been given there, to 
the great uneasiness of any humane Entomologist. The methods of 
suffocation by tobacco or sulphur are equally inefficacious, unless conti- 
nued for a greater number of hours than is proper forthc preservation 
the specimens. Another method now in practice is better; and, 
however fraught with cruelty it may appear to the inexperienced col- 
lector, is the greatest piece of comparative mercy that can in this case 
he administered. When the larger Moths must be killed, destroy them 
at once by the insertion of a strong red hot needle into their thickest parts, 
ginning at the front of the thorax. If this is properly done, instead of 
lingering through several daps they are dead in a moment. It appears to 
nie, however, that insects being animals of cold and sluggish juices, are 
not so susceptible of the sensations we call pain as those which enjoy a 
