Probably the number of blank spaces will at first suggest an almost hopeless task, but a few years of careful searching and rearing will give you heart to continue your interesting work.
Arrange all the insects in perpendicular rows. Put the names of each section, tribe, family, and genus at the head of their respective divisions, and the names of the species below each insect or series of insects. The opposite plan, in which the circles represent the insects themselves, will make this clear.
Three or four specimens of each species are generally sufficient, except where variations in colouring are to be exhibited. Wherever differences exist in the form or markings of the sexes, both should appear; and one specimen of each species should be pinned so as to exhibit the under side.
Finally, each drawer or box should have a neat label outside giving the name or names of the divisions of insects that are represented within. This will enable you to find anything you may require without the necessity of opening drawer after drawer or box after box.
PART III
BRITISH BUTTERFLIES
We have now treated in detail of the changes through which butterflies and moths have to pass, and have studied the methods by which we may obtain and preserve the insects in their different stages. I shall now give such a brief description of individual species as will enable the reader to recognise them readily. We will begin with the butterflies.