PROCEEDINGS, 1916. 13 



Use your bottle for butterflies and moths; but don't put beetles in with them. 

 Their sharp claws will injure the wings of the other insects. Plate 1, Fig. 2 shows the 

 bottle in use. This figure also shows small phials in which larvae or chrysalids may be 

 preserved in formalin. 



A collection is much more valuable if it shows the complete life history of a few in- 

 sects. The larvae are more difficult to preserve than are the other stages. Any book on 

 entomology, however, will give instructions which will enable one with average pati- 

 ence to inflate the larva skins. Plate 1, Fig. 5, illustrates the apparatus used. Even 

 with simpler apparatus than this one can do creditable work. 



For collecting moths at night either a light or a sweet bait is necessary. Very often 

 the moths collect round our lighted windows on warm sultry evenings, and by holding 

 the bottle below the moths they will often drop in without one's having to touch them. 



To get a greater variety, however, it is wise to try the bait. Mix a cup of molasses 

 with half a cup of water, and into this mixture put banana skins, rotten apples, spoiled 

 preserves, or any such material to give it a strong odor. It is well to have this mixture 

 prepared a day or two before using. Then on a warm cloudy evening go out to the edge 

 of a woodlot or into a park or even to the shade trees around the house, and, with an old 

 cloth, rub a little of this bait on the trunks of trees. Do this just before dark. After 

 dark go round to the same trees with a lantern and your cyanide bottle. If moths have 

 come to the bait you had spread for them approach quietly, hold your open bottle be- 

 low them and they will drop into it. Here, again, practice is worth more than further 

 written detail. It is wise to have one side of your lantern darkened so that the operator 

 is in the dark, while the moths are in the light. 



Do not be discouraged if the catch is small at first trial. Keep it up. Some nights 

 one won't get anything; other nights, one might get over a hundred specimens. I have 

 caught as many as four hundred in one evening, made up of thirty-five kinds. Often, 

 too, I have caught nothing. 



It is almost useless to use the bait near a flower garden. The flowers are likely to 

 be more attractive than the bait. Neither is it wise to use it near town lights. 



Having caught the butterflies or moths the next thing to do is to preserve them. 

 When dry, they cannot spoil. The only precaution is to have them in tight boxes where 

 other insects cannot get at them. The larva of a small beetle is very fond of feeding on 

 them. 



If possible stretch them the day after they are caught. The wings are then pliable. 

 The method of stretching depends somewhat on whether the insects are to be mounted 

 on pins or between cotton batting and glass. The latter for most purposes is preferable 

 for it permits rougher handling. 



One way to stretch butterflies and moths is to have a very smooth board of pine 

 or white wood, about two feet long,f our inches wide, and with a groove about one-eighth 

 of an inch wide and one-eighth deep lengthwise along the centre of the upper surface. 

 This groove is for the body of the insect. Insert a small pin through the body of the in- 

 sect from the upper side towards the lower, and between the front pair of wings. Then 

 place the insect on the board with its body and feet on the groove, and push the pin into 

 the wood at the bottom of the groove. This will hold the insect in place while you ar- 

 range its wings. The front wings should be drawn forward until their hind edges are 

 at right angles to the body. Then draw the hind wings forward to close the space be- 

 tween the two pairs of wings. Pin strips of paper on the wings to hold them in this posi- 

 tion for two or three days until dry. They will then be stiff, and will remain so perman- 

 ently. 



It would be wise to cross two pins astride the body to hold it in place, and then 

 withdraw the pin which was put through the body at first. If one tried to withdraw the 



