Collecting Insects of the High Mountains 269 



them beautiful, and all of them, if observed with any atten- 

 tion, of interesting habits or manner. Some of these observers 

 will wish to collect and preserve some of the kinds of insects 

 they see. It is for Sierra Club members of this latter class 

 that I write these few notes of suggestion. 



For collecting butterflies, one should have a gauze net with 

 light folding handle. Or no handle at all need be brought from 

 home, improvised ones being cut and fitted after reaching the 

 mountains. A butterfly may be killed by putting on it a few 

 drops of chloroform or ether, or by a firm and slightly pro- 

 tracted pinching of the two sides of the thorax (the part of 

 the body from which the wings arise). This pinching should 

 be strong but not severe enough to crush the body. It may ad- 

 visedly be repeated two or three times before assuming that the 

 butterfly is killed. The butterflies should be put away with 

 wings folded, in envelopes or bits of fairly stiff paper (writ- 

 ing paper is good), folded to form a triangular holder. 



For all other insects the best method of killing is by the use 

 of a "cyanide bottle," prepared by dropping two or three lumps, 

 each as large as a finger end, of cyanide of potassium into the 

 bottom of a wide-mouthed bottle (of 4 to 8 ounces capacity). 

 Over the cyanide should be put enough moistened plaster of 

 Paris to completely cover it. When the plaster of Paris sets 

 the cyanide will be held firmly in the bottom of the bottle. 

 Keep the bottle firmly corked and it will always be filled with 

 a gas deadly to any insects that may be dropped into it. Keep 

 a piece of blotting paper, occasionally renewed, over the plas- 

 ter of Paris in the bottom of the bottle. Keep also a loosely 

 crushed piece of tissue paper in the bottle, both to soak up 

 moisture from the insect bodies and to keep the insects from 

 knocking about too violently as the bottle is carried. Drop 

 any collected flies, ants, bees, beetles, bugs, and even small 

 moths and butterflies, into this bottle as you tramp and wan- 

 der during the day. At night take out the dead insects and 

 either pack them away between thin layers of cotton wadding 

 in a small wooden or tin box, or "pin them up" by thrusting 

 an insect pin vertically through the thorax until only one- 

 fourth of it projects above the back of the insect. Keep these 

 pinned insects in a small wooden box with its bottom covered 



