In this post I wanted to give a brief introduction on how to pin insects. I'm not sure what species this is in the first photos, and the one in the last pic is a "stink bug." It is a hymoptera, the true bugs order. You can tell it is because of the shield-like back. Now, on to the pining.

Life-Like Pinning:

Life-Like pinning is when one tries to "set" the insect in the most life-like pose possible. There is another type of pinning, in which one constricts the insect to save space, and that is shown at the bottom of this post.

This first photo shows the insect before I began pinning it.

The first pin goes through the abdomen a little below the thorax and a little to the right of the center. The photo below is not correct placement because the insect had an abdomen unsuitable for pinning.

These 2 pins are to hold the insect in place while it is drying, which takes about a week.

Here I have put the insect's antenna in the most life-like pose I can, and I did the same with the front right leg.

Now I am furthering the life-like pose pinning process with the five remaining legs.

This is the insect, finished with pinning. Note: The left-back leg "foot" is missing.

Compact-Type Pinning

In this way, as I said above, the object is to compact the insect as much as possible. This technique is often used on small insects, like the one shown below.

The insects take about a week to dry. Once finished, move the insects to a secure place like a special insect case. Several mothballs can be added to the case to help prevent insect damage. After the insect has dried and I have removed the pins, I will post a photo of it.