Collecting and Preserving Insects 



KILLING AND PRESERVING INSECTS 



The use of alchohol or formalin is the most satisfactory 

 method of killing most soft-bodied insects. Those with harder 

 bodies should be dropped into a cyanide bot- 

 tle or they may be killed with chloroform. 



The Cyanide Bottle. The cyanide bottle 

 is prepared by taking a large quinine bottle or 

 morphine bottle or one of the stout round- 

 bottomed neckless tubes, putting into it a few 

 small lumps of cyanide of potassium and pour- 

 ing over them a semi-fluid mixture of plaster 

 of pans and water. The bottle is then left 

 open for a few hours until the plaster of paris 

 thoroughly dries. The purpose of the plaster 

 is to prevent the moisture from the deliquescing 

 cyanide from reaching the insects and it is 

 well also to put a piece of blotting paper over 

 the plaster. When one is collecting insects it 

 would be well to cut into strips some soft 

 absorbent paper and stick the slips into the 

 bottle in such a way that the insects' bodies 

 will not rattle about too much. 



'Preparing Insects for the Cabinet. In 

 mounting insects for the cabinet no pins 

 should be used except those made especially 

 for mounting specimens. The long German 

 pins are much to be preferred to the short Eng- 

 lish ones. The best are the Klaeger pins, the 

 Carlsbad pins and the Vienna pins, all of 

 which can be purchased from the dealer in 

 entomological supplies. The Japanned black pins are the best for 

 most insects since they are not ruined by the verdigris which 

 issues from the bodies of many insects. Specimens should be 

 prepared for the collection as soon after death as possible. If 

 they have been collected in the forenoon they should' be 

 mounted the same evening where possible. Most of the in- 

 sects which we consider in this book should be pinned through 

 the thorax. Grasshoppers and locusts should have one pair of 

 wings spread. Dragon-flies and most other Neuropterous insects 



401 



Fig. 259. Pocket 

 cyanide bottle. 

 (After Riley.) 



