MOUNTING INSECTS
The first insects I ever saw in a collection were a sorry sight. Beautiful as the specimens had been, they were all spoiled by the collector. The moths were all out of shape, wings half folded, the pins used were short common pins, and every specimen was disfigured with masses of verdigris, they were pinned into rough boxes in higgledy-piggledy fashion, and showed every sign of neglect and careless handling. My interest in insect collecting did not date from that hour but from a look I had at a friend's cabinet years later.
The first mistake a beginner makes is to use common pins. Really, before you begin to collect, you ought to send away for a supply of German insect pins. These can be bought from dealers in entomological supplies and a hundred each of Nos. 3 and 5 will cost thirty cents. With them your collection may be salable, and you may exchange your duplicates with other collectors, while if you use common pins your specimens will have no commercial value, and will soon be spoiled, by the corroding of the pins.
Cross-section of spreading-board, showing construction
The first insect you get will probably be a butterfly, or a moth, for these showy ones are all you are able to see. Later the smaller ones will attract your attention. Therefore you will not be able to mount your first specimen properly without a spreading-board. The drawing of one which appears on this page will tell you more about how to make as well as how to use it than any amount of description. If you can earn seventy-five cents more easily than by making a set of three of these in assorted sizes, you can buy for that amount an adjustable one which will serve you for all winged insects of all sizes.
Spreading-board, in use
I will suppose that you have captured your first butterfly. Do get a good sized one first as it will be easier to learn on that than on a small one. An hour in a freshly made cyanide jar is long enough to insure a painless death. If any one calls you a cruel boy at this time, assure the person that butterflies are very short-lived and that this one would have been eaten by a bird within an hour or two anyhow. The cyanide is the least painful form of dying for the butterfly. Its work is probably done, already. You can prove that you do not kill insects for the fun of seeing them die, by putting the bottle back in your pocket where they can die in private, and by never killing any unless you need them for your collection. A few duplicates for exchange is also legitimate. It does not injure a specimen to leave it in the jar over night. If you cannot spread it immediately, do not take it from the jar, as when dried they cannot be spread, as they are very brittle.
If you never looked at a butterfly before, you will look at this one. You will note that it has four broad wings attached to a rounded body. The portion of the body to which the wings are fastened is called the thorax. For a medium-sized insect, a No. 3 pin should be taken. The butterfly should be pinned through the thorax, half way between the front wings. Direct the pin so that it will come out in the middle on the under side of the thorax. One fourth of the pin's length should remain above the insect. This may seem a small matter but insects unevenly pinned look badly, and it spoils their salability. You will want some black-headed pins for use on the spreading-board. Common pins hurt the fingers, insect pins are too flexible and expensive. Pin strips of paper on to hold the wings in place. With the picture of butterflies on a spreading-board as a model, you will, after some experience, get so that you can do this well. It is no job for an impatient person, though. Leave the butterfly on the board until it is thoroughly dry, which takes three days. Put the board where the air can have free circulation around it, but not the mice.
Showing how to pin common insects
The only insects that are not pinned through the middle of the thorax are the beetles, those hard-shelled creatures like June bugs (which ought to be called May beetles), and potato bugs (which are also beetles). If you put a pin through the centre of a beetle's thorax, it spreads the wings out in an unnatural way. So collectors agree to pin them through the right wing-cover.
Pin butterflies through the thorax, between the front pair of wings
Your next requirement will be boxes to put the specimens in. Many a fine collection has been begun in ordinary cigar boxes. At first you will probably try to pin the insects right into the bottom of the box. After you have spoiled two or three of your rarest ones, bent a dozen or so expensive pins, you will conclude that the wood is too hard and does not hold the pins well. Be warned in time to save yourself this bother. The boxes should be lined with a thin layer of some material which, though soft enough to push a pin into easily, must at the same time be elastic and firm enough to hold the pins. Cork, linoleum, and slices of pith are all used. You may have noticed, though, if you have been to a large, up-to-date museum, that the specimens of insects are all pinned into solid blocks of wood. Many an hour I have spent pinning specimens into blocks in their permanent places in a great museum collection. It is hard work and has to be done with a tool. When once fastened on a block the insect is supposed to be a fixture; when it moves the block goes along. But the material you use in your boxes ought to be soft enough to make shifting of specimens easy. For example, at first you will get a great assortment. A butterfly to-day, a beetle or two to-morrow, a pair of moths the next day, some crickets, a dragon fly, a cicada, a waterbug, and so on. Take everything unless you already have it. That is the only way to collect. If you say, "Oh, I'll get a better one to-morrow," the chances are that the season will go by and you will not get that variety at all.
Glass-topped insect case