HOW TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE INSECTS 



WHAT ARE INSECTS 



''Insects are hexapodous tracheate arthropods," which doesn't 

 help much unless it be translated, for the man who can translate it 

 does not need to be told. On the part of laymen, however, and this 

 pamphlet is intended for laymen, there is a good deal of haziness as to 

 what are insects and what are not. Arthropods are creatures having 

 jointed appendages but no internal skeleton. The group includes 

 crabs, spiders and centipedes as well as insects. "Tracheate" refers 

 to the structure of the breathing apparatus, but need not concern 

 us here, for "hexapodous" settles the whole matter if one does not 

 object to exceptions. An arthropod with no more than six legs is fairly- 

 certain to be an insect. The exceptions to this are minute immature 

 forms not likely to be noticed by the reader. However, a young insect 

 is an insect as truly as is a full-grown one, and while some young insects 

 (flies, for example) have no legs, others (young butterflies, for example) 

 have more than six legs. Perhaps if we call these exceptions maggots 

 and caterpillars, enough will have been said. No mention has been made 

 of wings, for two reasons : very many insects never have wings, and no 

 insect has wings or even signs of wings when very young. It may be 

 said here that when an insect does have fully developed wings it is full- 

 grown. A small winged fly never grows up to be a larger fly, as many 

 suppose. Most insects have an outwardly quiet stage, called the pupal, 

 between the crawling larval and the flying adult ones, but many other 

 insects remain active, merely gaining more and more fully developed 

 wings at each molt. Compare in this respect the butterflies and the 

 grasshoppers. 



WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND INSECTS 



An entomologist is frequently amused at being asked by well- 

 meaning friends if he found anything when he went out. Insect hunt- 

 ing is a sport in which there are no blanks if you know the game. Fre- 

 quently the most unpromising times and places are the best, for others 

 have been discouraged by the outlook and you get what they have 

 missed. We can never truly say that we know an insect's haunts 

 until we can tell where to look for it every hour of every day in the 

 year. If you wish to confuse an entomological friend, find out where 

 an insect sleeps, then ask him if he knows, or request him as a favor 

 to get you some common insects in the winter. Many insects are 



