BRITISH BEETLES. 
46 
setting-board for at least a fortnight ; thorough drying 
being essential for their preservation. The larger 
i nsects should be pinned through the right wing-case, 
and never through the thorax, and their legs may be 
kept in position with smaller pins whilst drying. Some, 
such as the Oil-beetles, require stuffing; and many 
others of the very large species dry all the better for 
having the contents of the abdomen removed, and the 
cavity dried with bits of blotting-paper and filled up 
with cotton wool. Each specimen should have a number 
written on the under side of the card or on a small 
label attached to the pin, by means of which a record 
can be kept in a journal of the date, place, and circum- 
stances of its capture. 
Examples of both sexes of each species should, where 
practicable, be mounted on their backs, to show the 
under side; it is, however, very easy to float off speci- 
mens set in the ordinary way, and reverse or recard 
them as desired. 
When the insects are quite dry, they should, if 
mounted in a row, be separated, and all superfluous 
card cut away from each specimen, — care being taken, 
however, to leave ample room behind for the pocket- 
glass to go all round the body. Not more than one 
example should be allowed on one card, and the cards 
(which look best when those on which the specimens of 
any one species are mounted are all of the same size) 
should be oblong, with parallel ends and sides ; and 
pinned in the middle of, and close to, the hinder margin. 
If elevated about three parts up the pin, they are more 
secure from dirt and mites, and easier to examine ; and 
No. 17 pin (Messrs. D. F. Tayler and Co., New Hall 
Works, Birmingham) is perhaps the most useful size. 
