164 SCHOOL ENTOMOLOGY 



cyanide in the bottom of the bottle with this, Allow the 

 plaster to set and to dry thoroughly, place some absorbent 

 paper loosely in the bottle and keep tightly corked to pre- 

 vent its losing strength. This bottle will be effective for 

 an entire season and cannot harm one who handles it 

 unless it is broken. Discarded bottles should be buried. 



In addition to the cyanide bottle one should have 

 small boxes or tobacco tins for living specimens, others for 

 the specimen taken out of the cyanide bottle, where they 

 should be left only until they are certainly dead, and 

 some tubes of alcohol or formalin in which to place speci- 

 mens which are to be preserved in liquid. All larvae 

 should be taken alive or placed in the liquid, never in the 

 cyanide jars. There should be several cyanide jars for 

 the different types of insects. Moths and butterflies 

 should be kept separated from other insects in the jars 

 and not more than one or two specimens of these should 

 go into the same jar at one time. 



Any bag or knapsack in which a sufficient quantity of 

 these materials can be carried safely is a good collecting 

 bag. 



Many collectors, especially beginners, think of the net 

 as a most necessary part of the equipment. The experi- 

 enced collector uses a net for comparatively few of his 

 captures. Specimens which can be taken without the 

 net are likely to be taken in better condition if it 

 is not used. Experience alone will teach where it must 

 be used. Satisfactory nets can now be purchased very 

 cheaply, or they can be made at home. The requisites 

 are: a bag of any light but strong material, from eight 

 to twelve inches in diameter and from twelve to twenty 

 inches deep; a strong metal ring firmly attached to a 

 light handle not more than three feet long. Special nets 



