How to Make a Collection of Insects. 



Though the nature study class will find most of its interest 

 and most of its work in observing the habits of animals and 

 plants, there is a certain interest and use in collecting and pre- 

 serving specimens, in "making a collection." Among animals 

 none are more readily collected and preserved than insects. They 

 are abundant both in species and in individuals; they 

 are to be found at all seasons of the year, and under 

 all conditions of surroundings. They live on the surface of the 

 ground, in the soil, in water, on and in all kinds of plants, in 

 decaying matter, in short, they have adapted themselves to 

 almost all of the conditions under which it is at all possible for 

 animals to live. Coupled with this abundance of individuals and 

 variety of habitat, they are readily collected and easily preserved. 

 No elaborate collecting equipment is required, nor any expensive 

 and room filling cabinets. Thus insects present themselves as 

 specially fit objects for the beginnings of a nature study collection. 



Not only are the full grown flying insects themselves to be 

 collected, but also their immature stages; the eggs, the cat- 

 erpillars and other larvae, the cocoons and chrysalides and various 

 pupal forms, and finally their nests and the various products of 

 their handiwork, all should be collected and properly arranged 

 and displayed for reference. In the following directions for 

 making and caring for, as simply as possible, an insect collection, 

 some account of the collecting and preserving of all these various 

 kinds of specimens is included. 



For collecting insects there is necessary a collecting net and a 

 collecting or killing bottle. The net bag should be about 12 or 

 13 inches in diameter at its mouth, about 24 inches deep, and 

 should taper from its mouth to a diameter of about 6 inches at 

 the rounding bottom. It should be made of cheese cloth or 

 strong bobinet, and should be bordered at its mouth by sheeting 

 which should be firmly sewn over a wire net-ring fastened to a 



