ROSS: HOW TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE INSECTS 15 



Collecting Berlese Samples. — Many different habitats and 

 microhabitats provide good samples for the Berlese funnel. You 

 will find that, for general collecting, various types of ground 

 cover are excellent ; for leaf mold samples, scrape off and discard 

 the dry surface leaves and scoop up the lower, rotted layers of 

 leaves together with an inch or two of the adjacent soil. You 

 may encounter especially good samples where leaves have blown 

 in along the edge of a log. In such a situation, take some of the 

 log bark with the sample. Collect rotten log samples in large 

 hunks and break them up just before putting them in the funnel. 

 From either standing stumps or fallen logs in which the wood 

 is still too hard to break up, collect the loose bark, as it is often 

 quite productive. Frequently, if you roll a log over, you may 

 find animal runs under it; the debris and earth under and 

 around these runs, together with animal nests, frequently give 

 unusual catches, such as larvae and adults of fleas, and rare ticks. 

 Especially productive are samples taken from the interior of a 

 standing hollow tree; from the bottom of the hollow you can 

 scoop out a foot or more of fine, rotten, woody material rich in 

 rare insects. 



Certain specific items placed in the funnel may produce dis- 

 tinctive and unusual catches. Recently deserted birds' nests will 

 give mites and, frequently, rare beetles, flies, and their larvae; 

 mature or overmature mushrooms and bracket fungi are often 

 rich in beetles, thrips, and maggots; bark of living trees may 

 produce unusual thrips, springtails, and psocids; debris from 

 aquatic habitats and from the wet edge of ponds and tiny streams 

 may be productive of rare aquatic and semiaquatic forms. Moss 

 is a good source of peculiar species of springtails, thrips, and 

 beetles ; the moss should be rolled up carefully while being trans- 

 ported. 



Handling Berlese Collections. — In the field, put samples of 

 leaf mold or other material in tightly woven cloth bags or strong 

 paper bags for transportation. It is convenient to have small 

 paper bags for mushrooms, nests, and other small items, and 

 larger bags for ground cover, moss, and the like. When collecting 

 ground cover and similar material, put in each bag enough of a 

 sample so that it will not shake around loosely, but do not pack 

 it tightly. Be sure that samples do not overheat while being 

 transported. 



Samples may be collected at any season. If collected during 

 warm weather, they should be taken to a laboratory and placed 



