45 



from the work the chloroform seems nearly exhausted, it would be well to pour in a few 

 drops more, and then close the lid for the night. If these precautions are taken the 

 insects will never revive. 



Chloroform, when used in this manner, will be found to possess many advantages 

 over any other poison. It is quicker in its action, much more convenient, and under all 

 circumstances entirely harmless. I use this form of collecting bottle both for the electric 

 light and in the field. The bottle will contain, without injury to the specimens, the 

 captures of a whole evening, or a whole day. 



If, through carelessness, so much chloroform has been poured into the bottle as to 

 saturate the pasteboard on which the specimens rest, their wings may become moistened 

 and somewhat damaged. To prevent accidents of this character, pack a bunch of 

 crumpled newspaper tightly down on the pasteboard before putting in any specimens ; the 

 paper will be dry, and will prevent the insects from coming in contact with the moist 

 pasteboard. 



For Coleoptera I use a morphine bottle prepared in the same way, except that the 

 newspaper is not wanted, and it is closed with a cork. I always cairy such a bottle in 

 my pocket ready primed, and thus am always prepared for preserving any specimens 

 captured incidentally while engaged in other affairs. 



A PRACTICAL NOTE ON COLLECTING INSECTS. 



BY PROF. E. W. CLAYPOLE, AKRON, OHIO. 



In reference to the above two notes on collecting, will you allow me to make a few 

 remarks 1 Entomology is with me a secondary subject, my time being for the most part 

 occupied with another science. Perhaps this has led me to devise means for economizing 

 time and labor more than I should otherwise have done ; but the study of insects has 

 great attraction for me, and I spend no little time upon it. 



The method which I desire to mention may be too well known to deserve any space 

 in your columns — if so, I can only ask you to overlook my intrusion — but I have never 

 seen it mentioned in print anywhere, nor have I ever seen it used by any entomologist of 

 my acquaintance. Perhaps also there may be some objections to its adoption which I 

 have not discovered in the course of several years' use. In that case I shall be glad to 

 learn them. 



Your contributors speak of chloroform and cyanide of potassium as their favourite 

 insecticide materials. Both these I have abandoned for some years, the former because it 

 is expensive, and the latter because it is unpleasant and dangerous, especially the latter 

 to young students, and both because they are comparatively imperfect in their effects. 

 For example : I have often known an insect, especially one of the large bodied Bombycids, 

 that recovered after having been apparently killed by chloroform, and even after having 

 been pinned out in the case. The result usually is that it is seriously injured by flapping 

 about. Chloroform is an anaesthetic and not a poison, and its effect soon passes ofl unless 

 its action is renewed or long continued so as to insure death. 



In regard to cyanide of potassium, I may state that last year I found one of my 

 cases bady infested with the fur moth (T. pellionella). I put an open bottle containing 

 cyanide of potassium into the case and closed it. For a fortnight it remained so, when 

 desiring to know the result of the poison, I opened it. It was strongly impregnated with 

 the well known smell of cyanide. To my surprise, however, I could not find a dead 

 moth, and the larva? were as lively, after breathing for fourteen days the so-called deadly 

 atmosphere, as if they had been all the time in the open air. As a substitute for both of 

 these I have for years used no other insecticide for the purpose of killing my specimens 

 than benzine or gasoline. The latter at fourteen cents a gallon, is merely nominal in cost 



