[51] 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS RILEY. 



Fig. 71. — Collecting Pill-box. 

 «, glass bottom (original). 



affords the most satisfactory lueaus of collecting. The food of butterflies 

 is almost exclusively the nectar of flowers, but strangely enough they 

 are also attracted to decaying animal matter, and many species, includ- 

 ing rare forms, may be taken about decaying animal matter or resting 

 on spots where dead animals have lain, or beneath which they have been 

 buried. Moist spots of earth are also frequented 

 by them, especially in dry seasons. Many of 

 the larger butterflies, whose larvae feed on the 

 taller shrubs and the foliage of trees, will be 

 found fluttering about the open spaces in forests, 

 but by far the larger mimber, as the Browns, 

 the Blues, the Yellows, and the Whites, which 

 develop on the lower herbaceous and succulent 

 plants, will be found flying over fields, prairies, 

 and gardens. Crepuscular and nocturnal Lepi- 

 doptera, comprising most of the Heterocera, 

 the Sphingidne, Bombycids, Noctuids, etc., have 

 different habits. The SphingidsB or Hawk Moths fly in early evening, 

 and may be collected in quantity about such plants as the Honeysuckle, 

 Thistle, Verbena, Petunia, etc. The Bombycids and many iSToctuids also 

 fly in the early evening, but mostly at night. The former, however, do 

 not frequent flowers, except such as are the food-plants of their larvte, 

 as their mouthparts are rudimentary, and they take no nourishment. 

 Collecting by the aid of strong light is a favorite means for moths 



as well as other insects, and 

 nowadays the electric lights in 

 all large cities furnish the best 

 collecting places, and hundreds 

 of species may be taken in almost 

 any desired quantity. In woods 

 or in other situations they may 

 be attracted to a lantern or to a 

 light placed in an open window. 

 Various traps have been devised, 

 which comi^rise a lamp with ap- 

 paratus for retaining and stupe- 

 fying the insects attracted to the 

 light. The common form is made 

 by providing a lantern with a strong reflector. Under the light a fun- 

 nel several inches larger than the lantern reaches down into a box or 

 bottle containing the fumes of chloroform, ether, or benzine. 



Mr. Jerome McNeill describes at length and figures in the American 

 Naturalist, Vol. xxiii, p. 268-270, an insect trap to be used in connection 

 with electric lights. It consists of a tin pail or can charged with cya- 

 nide after the manner of a collecting bottle, which is attached beneath 

 the globe of the electric light. 



Fig. 72.— Method of holding and manipulating col 

 lecting pill-box iu capturing (original). 



