pupa boxes should be examined every day. A morning visit to your pupæ (for most insects emerge in the morning) may reward you with the sight of a newly emerged imago, clinging to the rough surface of the box, thus affording you an opportunity of observing the wonderful expansion of the wings. But the greeting is not always of such a pleasant character, for your disappointed eyes will sometimes be cast on a host of horrid ichneumons that have just quitted a shell from which you were expecting a prize of some specially valued species.
CHAPTER IX
SETTING AND PRESERVING
Setting and Preserving Butterflies and Moths
Up to the present we have been dealing only with living forms—learning how to catch and rear the Lepidoptera that fall to our lot; but now we have to become acquainted with the methods of preparing our dead specimens in such a way that they may form a useful collection for future study and reference. Our first attention shall be given to the apparatus necessary for this work.
The most important requirement is the setting boards, of which several are necessary, the sizes varying according to the dimensions of the different insects to be 'set.' The lengths of all the boards should be the same, not only for the convenience of packing when not in use, but also in order that they may, if required, be arranged neatly in the 'drying house' to be presently described. The widths only will vary, and in this respect the boards must be adapted to the measurements of the insects from tip to tip when the wings are fully expanded. Thus, a set of a dozen boards, ten or twelve inches long, and from one to five inches wide, will do for a good start. Of course you may commence with a smaller number than twelve, but if you really mean to do the thing well, you will eventually require a good stock of boards.
Here, again, it may be mentioned that all the necessary requisites may be purchased ready for use, a set of boards and a drying house complete costing from ten to twenty shillings according to size and quality; but as the reader, like myself, may prefer to construct his own, I will supply him with hints and suggestions sufficient for the work.
Each board is constructed in this way. Cut out and plane up a piece of wood of the required length and breadth, and about one-eighth of an inch thick. Glue on the top of this a layer of cork
about half an inch in thickness, leaving the whole under a moderate pressure until the glue is quite hard. The sheets of cork for this purpose may be bought at any naturalist's stores; but slices cut from good large bottle corks may be made to answer equally well if you don't mind the extra time expended in cutting and fixing.