Th, 5 ANN 
BNTOMOLOGCGY. 
97 
field work, are soon abandoned as useless incumbrances ; and the 
greater the experience, the simpler will be the paraphernalia. 
My own equipment, on a collecting trip, consists chiefly of a 
cotton umbrella, a strong and narrow steel trowel or digger, a haver- 
sack slung across the shoulders, a cigar-box lined with sheet cork, 
and a small knapsack attached to a waist-belt which girts a coat, 
not of many colors, but of many pockets so made that in stooping 
nothing falls out of them. The umbrella is one of the indispen- 
sables. It shields, when necessary, from old Sol’s scorching rays 
and from the pelting, drenching storm; brings within reach, by 
its hooked handle, many a larva-freighted bough which would 
otherwise remain undisturbed ; and forms an excellent receptacle 
or all insects that may be dislodged from bush or branch. 
Opened and held inverted under a bough with the left hand, 
while the right manipulates a beating-stick cut for the occasion, it 
will be the recipient of many a choice specimen that would never 
have been espied amid its protective surroundings. Some col- 
lectors use an umbrella painted or lined on the inside with white 
to facilitate the detection of any object that drops into it; but as 
there are fully as many, if not more, pale and white insects as 
there are dark or black ones, the common dark umbrella is 
enough for all ordinary purposes. The trowel is valuable for 
prying off the loosened bark from old trees, whether felled or stand- 
ing, and for digging into the ground or into decaying stumps and 
logs. The haversack is for the carriage of different kinds of boxes 
(those made of tin being best) intended for larvee and other forms 
which it is necessary to bring home alive for breeding purposes ; 
and if made with a partition so that the filled and empty boxes 
may be separated, all the better: it may also be used for nets and 
other apparatus to be mentioned and for such provender as is 
necessary on the trip. The knapsack may be made on the plan of 
a cartridge-box, of stout canvas or leather, and should be of mod- 
erate size and slung on to the belt so as to be slipped to any part of 
the waist and not hinder free bodily motion. It may be used toe 
carry bottles, phials and many other small appliances, and should 
be accordingly partitioned and furnished with loops or pockets on 
the inside. The cigar-box is for the reception of pinned speci- 
mens, and may be slipped on to the belt, or buttoned to the pants, 
by means of leather. 
The greatest requisites in collecting are a pair of sharp eyes and 
ready hands, but a few traps will materially aid. One of the most 
important is the hand-net, which may be made so as to subserve 
the two purposes of a sweeping, and an air net. The frame of the 
net which I use is illustrated retell (Fig. 2), and will be found 
strong and serviceable 
and conveniently por- 
table. t is con- 
structed as follows : 
Take two pieces of 
stout brass wire, each 
about 20 inches long : 
bend them half-circu- 
larly and join at one 
end by:a folding hinge 
having a check on one 
side (6). The other 
ends are bent an 
beaten into two square 
sockets (f) which fit 
to a nut sunk and 
soldered into one end 
of a brass tube (d@). 
When so fitted, they 
are secured by a large headed screw (e) threaded to fit into the nut- 
socket, and with a groove wide enough to receive the back of a 
[Fig 2.] 
ee ieee 
common pocket knife-blade. The wire hoop is easily detached 
and folded as at ¢ for convenient carriage ; and the handle may be 
made of any desired length by cutting a stick and fitting it into 
the hollow tube a, which should be about six inches long. It is well 
to have two separate hoops, one of lighter wire furnished with silk 
gauze or some other light material for catching flying insects; and 
one which is stouter and furnished with a net of stronger material 
for sweeping non-flying specimens. 
Another still more simple, but less convenient frame is thus 
— ey my friend F. G. Sanporn, of Boston, 
‘** Make a loop of strong iron or sei wire, of 
about 3-16ths of an inch in thickness, so that the 
diameter of the loop or circle will not exceed 
twelve inches, leaving an inch to an inch and a 
half of wire at each end bent at nearly right 
angles. Bind the two extremities of the wire 
ce together with smaller wire (Fig 3, a), and tin 
°F them by applying a drop of muriate of zinc, then 
. holding it in the fire or over a gas flame until 
a nearly red hot, when a few grains of block tin or soft 
solder placed upon them will flow evenly over the whole surface and 
join them firmly together. Take a Maynard rifle cartridge tube, or 
other brass tube of similar dimensions; if the former, file off the 
closed end or perforate it for the admission of the wire, and hav- 
ing tinned it in the same manner on the inside, push a tight-fitting 
cork half way through (Fig. 3, ¢), and pour into it melted tin or 
soft solder, and insert the wires; if carefully done you will have a 
firmly constructed and very durable foundation for a collecting net. 
The cork being extracted, will leave a convenient socket for insert- 
ing a stick or walking cane to serve as a handle.”’ 
The depth of the bag, in either case, should be fully twice 
the diameter of the hoop, so that by giving the net a _ twist 
the mouth may be closed and the contents thus secured. The 
sweeping net may be protected around the hoop with a cover- 
ing of leather, and in use should be kept in a rapid back-and-forth 
motion, over and touching the plants, until the contents are to be 
examined; when ‘by placing the head at the opening and quietly 
surveying the restless inmates, the desiderata may be secured and 
the rest turned out. A sudden dash of the air net will usually lay 
any flying object at the bottom. A net for aquatic insects may be 
made on the same principle, but should be stout, with the meshes 
open enough to allow free passage of water, and the bag not quite 
as deep as the diameter of the hoop. A coarse sieve, together with 
awhite towel, or sheet, will be found of great service for spe- 
cial occasions, particularly in the spring, when the search for 
minute insects found under old leaves or for pupe around the 
butts of trees is contemplated. With the sheet spread on the 
ground, and afew handfuls of leaves and leafy mold sifted over it, 
many a minute specimen will be separated from the coarser par- 
ticles and drop to the sheet where the eye may readily detect it. 
Conversely the earth taken from around trees may be sifted so as to 
leave in the sieve such larger objects as pupz, etc. Another 
favorite plan, with some collectors, of obtaining specimens, espe- 
cially night-flying moths, is by “‘sugaring.’’ This consists of 
stupefying preparation. Diluted molasses or disolved brown 
sugar, mixed with rum or beer, are most frequently employed. I 
have found sugaring of little use till after the blossoming season, 
and—notwithstanding assertions to the contrary—it is almost 
impossible to so stupefy or intoxicate an insect that it will remain 
tillthe next morning. I generally sugar at eve and visit the tree 
several times between sundown and midnight, armed with wide- 
mouthed killing bottles and accompanied by a second person who 
carries a dark-lantern. The collector should never go unprovided 
with a small box or tube full of different sized pins (a corked 
