HOW TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE INSECTS 



caiic;ht in this way may be washed off in alcohol and will be nearly 

 as good as new. Boards daubed on the under side with molasses 

 or covering meat are not bad. Girdled branches and cut limbs 

 hung up attract wood-boring in- 

 sects which can then be collected 

 by beating them into an upturned 

 umbrella by sharply rapping the 

 Hmbs with a stout stick. In fact 

 an umbrella is a very useful piece 

 of apparatus. Branches, both 

 living and dead, are full of in- 

 sects. The inverted umbrella 

 catches what are knocked off but 

 does not hold them for long. 

 The collector must act quickly. 

 Some collectors put a quill in the 

 cork of a collecting tube as shown 

 in Fig. 2. If the outer end of the 

 quill be put over the insect it will 

 crawl up through the quill and 

 into the bottle, from which exit 

 is difficult. If the umbrella be 

 white, or at least Hned with white, 

 the insects can be more easily seen 

 but so can the collector — not by 

 the insects particularly, but by 

 inquisitive humans — and the non- 

 committal black does very well. 



Beating will knock down many 

 larvae. Directions for preserving 

 them are given on page 18. Some, 

 at least, should be reared and here 

 ingenuity is of more value than 

 volumes of instructions. The be- 

 ginner will doubtless be inclined 

 to give his charges more light and 

 air than necessary. Pasteboard 



show boxes are excellent for large caterpillars. Tin boxes keep the 

 food longer and are easily cleaned but must be watched carefully or the 

 food will mold. If the food plant can be potted, a good contrivance 



Figure 3. A breeding cage. The flower pot 

 holds earth which contains a growing plant or 

 a bottle with fresh twigs. The lantern globe 

 with a netting cover confines the insects. 



