COLLECTING INSECTS 



With a little experience it is usually easy to collect insects very 

 successfully, provided one gets rid of the notion that the more common 

 forms are unworthy his attention. I have repeatedly seen students who 

 were required to make a collection, spend more time begging insects 

 than it would take to catch them. A beginner must be content at first 

 to take those he can see, and then as eye and muscles become trained, 

 he will soon be able to secure those of greater value. 



Collecting bottle. First provide at least a collecting jar or bottle. 

 For most insects, except the larger ones, a wide-mouthed vaseline bottle 

 is very convenient, but certain butterflies, moths and other insects with 

 a considerable wing-spread should be put in a larger bottle or jar with a 

 proportionately wider mouth. In order to prevent specimens from in- 

 juring themselves, the jar should be charged with potassium cyanide, 

 but as this is a deadly poison it must be handled with care and the 

 bottles might be more safely prepared by a druggist or teacher. The 

 usual method is to put in the vaseline bottle two or three pieces of 

 cyanide about twice the size of a pea (more if a larger jar is used), 

 pour in just enough water to cover the poison, and then add at once 

 enough plaster of paris to take 

 up the water. With a cloth wipe 

 out the upper portion of the bot- 

 tle and allow it to stand uncorked 

 till the plaster has hardened and 

 the inside is dry. Then cork 

 tightly, label the bottle Poison, 

 and in a few hours it will be ready 

 for use. Do not have the bottle 

 open more than is necessary as 

 the cyanide loses strength rapidly. 

 Those afraid of this dangerous 

 substance can add chloroform to 

 a little cotton kept in place by a 

 disk of blotting paper and use that 

 in the collecting bottle. But as chloroform requires frequent renewal and 

 is not so deadly to insect life, the cyanide bottle is generally preferred, and 

 with reasonable care need not be feared. With no farther outfit many 

 insects can be captured by advancing the open bottle and partly 

 pushing and partly driving the specimen in with the cork. A little 



Fig. 1 Collecting bottle (original) 



