ARTIFICIAL DEHYDRATION Although liquid preservation is more satisfactory for scientific purposes, it is sometimes desirable to mount spiders or soft-bodied insects dry. With the exception of Lepidopterists, students of insect de- velopment who like to keep together all the stages of a life cycle, hard and soft, are more likely to put the hard ones into liquid than to dry the soft ones. Show- specimens, however, should present as life-like an appearance as possible, and need not stand close expert scrutiny. These you will be justified in drying out by strategy. Unhappily, no one stratagem will suffice for all occasions, and some specimens fail to respond properly to any process yet devised. Nevertheless, there are a few basic schemes by which more or less satisfactory dry preparations can be made from most soft-bodied arthropods. Once you have grasped the principles, you should be able to improve upon the skeleton directions here given, and with the experi- ce of practice, to produce quite creditable results. Specimens which have been preserved in liquid for a long time are sure to come out almost colorless when dried. Even the brightest of fresh specimens will dry slightly faded. If constantly exposed to a strong light, the remaining color soon bleaches to a neutral tan, only a ghost of the original pattern surviving. To preserve any semblance of their ap- pearance during life, exhibition specimens will have to be painted. This should be done while you can still remember what they looked like, or better yet, while living specimens are available to serve as models. Ordinary oil paint is all right, but the trans- parent oil colors made for tinting photographs are particularly good for this purpose. They are so clear that a pattern of light and dark areas shows through, and can, therefore, be followed easily. Thin the paint with xylol for quicker drying, and put it on lightly with a small water-color brush. The more skill and patience you can bring to this operation, the more convincing the specimen will look. DRY MOUNTING BY INFLATION "Blowing" or "inflation" is the traditional and most widely practiced method for dry-mounting caterpillars. It can also be applied to grubs and to other creatures of suitable size and construction. The process consists of eviscerating the specimen, filling it with air like a balloon, and blowing continuously while it is drying in a small oven. For about six dollars you can buy from a scientific supply house a complete set of equipment for inflating caterpillars, together with instructions for its use. It is, however, perfectly practical and much cheaper to make your own "blowing" outfit from odds and ends, most of which you will already have around the house. The principal item is the oven. A tin can of moderate size is readily converted to this use, as shown in Fig. 6. Open the can as neatly as possible, leaving the top attached to the body for about two inches. Empty and wash the can, removing the paper label. With tin shears, cut in the lid a wedge-shaped hole large enough to admit a big caterpillar. Then bend the lid back to its original position in the mouth of the can. At the other end, just under the opening, puncture the can with a beer-opener, to make a vent or flue. Fig. 6. Home made oven for drying inflated caterpillars. The stand used to support the oven in the picture is made of scraps of wood, nailed together and lined with metal from another can. The source of heat is a spirit lamp, such as any druggist can supply. With a little ingenuity, you can adapt your oven to a gas ring or electric hot plate; but if you do, be sure to keep the fire turned low. Specimen, equipment, and operator alike may be damaged by excessive heat. To "blow" an insect, air is forced into the skin through a fine tube or canula. In a purchased outfit, this tube will be of metal or of glass, tapering at one end and equipped with an adjustable clamp to hold