The Preparation and Care of Insect Collections. 



173 



THE PREPARATION AND CARE OF INSECT 



COLLECTIONS. 



By Charles Dury. 



The object of this paper is to answer the question, " How 

 can I make a collection of insects, and what are the best 

 methods of killing, pinning, mounting, and taking care of 

 such material after it has been prepared? " A glance at many 

 of the collections shows faulty methods of preparation, 

 and the need for improvement in this direction. The collec- 

 tor should provide suitable implements for capturing and 

 killing his specimens. Be sure to start right in this respect. 

 I use the following: A large, strong, gingham umbrella, 

 which is used by holding it inverted under the foliage of trees, 

 bushes, and dead branches, which are beaten over it with a 

 long stick, jarring coleoptera, hemiptera, and other insects 

 into it; sweeping net made of strong muslin, sewed to a stiff 

 steel ring, which is firmly fixed into a handle eighteen inches 

 long (the ring being thirteen inches in diameter); this muslin 

 bag should be twenty inches deep. This is a most effective 

 implement for sweeping and beating grasses and weeds, for 

 the capture of small Coleoptera, etc. For sifting ants' nests, 

 moulds, moss, leaves, and rubbish, use a sifting net which is 

 made by sewing a muslin bag to a stout iron ring, ten inches 

 in diameter ; the bottom of the bag is a round piece of wire 

 netting, with one-quarter-inch mesh. The material to be 

 sifted is placed in the net and shaken over white paper, and 

 as the insects crawl about they can be readily seen and picked 

 up. For the capture of aquatic insects, I use a net made of 

 fine wire netting, sewed with soft wire to an iron ring, which 

 has been fixed in a long handle. To capture Lepidoptera, 

 Hymenoptera, and all flying insects, I use a net made of bob- 

 inet, sewed to a circular ring twelve inches in diameter, w 7 ith 

 a handle thirty-six inches long. These implements can be 

 purchased from dealers who advertise in the entomological 



