32 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



will be found of great service for special occasions, particularly 

 in the spring, when the search for minute insects found under old 

 leaves, or for pupa3 around the butts of trees, is contemplated. With' 

 the sheet spread on the ground, and a few handfuls of leaves and leafy 

 mold sifted over it, many a minute specimen will be separated from 

 the coarser particles, and drop to th6 sheet, where the eye may 

 readily detect it. Conversely, the earth taken from around trees may 

 be sifted so as to leave in the sieve such larger objects as pupge, etc. 

 Another favorite plan, with some collectors, of obtaining specimens, 

 especially night flying moths, is by "sugaring." This consists of ap- 

 plying to the trunks of trees, or to strips of cloth attached to the trees, 

 some sweet, attractive and stupefying preparation. Diluted molasses, 

 or dissolved brown sugar, mixed with rum or beer, is most frequently 

 employed. I have found sugaring of little use till after the blossom- 

 ing season, and — notwithstanding assertions to the contrary — it is 

 almost impossible to so stupefy or intoxicate an insect that it will re- 

 main till the next morning. I generally sugar at eve, and visit the 

 tree several times between sundown and midnight, armed with wide- 

 mouthed killing bottles, and accompanied by a second person who car- 

 ries a dark-lantern. Isolated trees, on the edges of woods, give the 

 best results. Everybody knows how some poor moths will persist in 

 flitting round a light, until they singe their wings; and, as many in- 

 sects are strongly attracted to bright artificial liglit, it may be em- 

 ployed with good results, especially during warm and damp evenings. 

 The collector should never go unprovided with a small box or tube 

 full of different sized pins (a corked cartridge tube makes a good box), 

 a pair or two of forceps, a pair of scissors, a little mucilage, and the 

 killing apparatus to be described. 



Killing. — After capturing an insect, intended for the cabinet, the 

 next thing is to kill and dispose of it till one gets home. All those, 

 as the various Beetles, Bugs, some Nerve-winged and some Straight- 

 winged insects, which have either hard or naked coverings, and do not 

 spoil when wetted, may be thrown into alcohol kept in stout, wide 

 mouthed and well-corked bottles. The alcohol at once kills and pre- 

 serves. 



The cyanide bottle is very useful for killing the more delicate 

 Scaly-winged and Two-winged insects. Itis a wide-mouthed bottle, 

 with a few grains of cyanide of potassium kept in place at the bot- 

 tom by a layer ot cotton-wadding, pressed down upon it and cap- 

 ped with something smooth, such as perforated card-board. The 

 cyanide is a deadly poison, and soon kills anything thrown into the 

 bottle. DifJerent sized bottles may be used, and one made of a chem- 

 ist's test-tube (Fig. 14) is convenient in the field. Carbonate of 

 ammonia may be used as a substit ite for cyanide, but it affects 

 the colors more, especially of delicate green insects. In countries 



