ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 77 



CHAPTER IX. 



How to Collect and Mount Insects.* 



The necessary outfit of the Entomologist is neither a very 

 large nor a very expensive one. It consists of a net, a num- 

 ber of bottles of alcohol, a few small boxes, one or two 

 cyanide bottles, some pins and cork, and a few setting 

 boards. 



For a net, it is best to go to a tinner, and have him 

 make you a wire hoop about twelve inches in diameter, with 

 a socket, into which the handle may be introduced. The 

 bag portion should be made of cheese-cloth, or, still better, 

 Swiss muslin. The entire cost of the net will not exceed 

 twenty-five cents. 



If your specimens are to remain in the alcohol for any 

 length of time, the purest, or 98 per cent., should be used, 

 but if you intend leaving the insects in for a few days only, 

 a poorer grade will suffice- 

 Next is your cyanide bottle, to be used in killing butter- 

 flies and such other insects a3 would be injured by immer- 

 sion in alcohol. For this, get a wide-mouthed bottle or jar, 

 and into it drop a few pieces of cyanide of potassium, (pro- 

 curable at any drug store), and over them pour plaster of 

 Paris, mixed with water. When this hardens it will form a 

 smooth floor, the deadly fumes from which will soon over- 

 come any insect placed upon it. The entire cost of this 

 article will be about fifteen cents. 



*Copyright, 1888. Noble M. Eberhart. 



