JUNE § 
-¥©RKEB 
365 
giarg of a pluralist. 
DAILY RURAL LIFE. 
From the Diary of n Gentleman near New 
York City. 
COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 
May 23. — Agreeable to promise, made 
some time since to several of my correspond¬ 
ents, I now propose to offer some hints in 
regard to making an entomological cabinet. 
It ca nnot, be expected of me that I can give 
all the necessary information upon this sub¬ 
ject in a column or two of the Rural New- 
Yorker ; still, I hope to help the beginner 
to start aright, and avoid some of the mis¬ 
takes which I made in commencing to form 
my own cabinet. 
At the very outset, I would warn the nov¬ 
ice not to he too sanguine of success, for it 
is far better to accomplish more than one 
expects to in the beginning than fall short, 
—rr--- CL 
Fio. 1. 
thereby having your enthusiasm end in dis¬ 
appointment. The novice should also boar 
in mind that a good collection, even in any 
one of the principal orders, is the work of a 
lifetime, and not of a few months or even 
years. It is true, if one has plenty of money 
t,o spend in purchasing specimens, he may 
make a great show of insects in a very short 
time, and still know really nothing of the 
individual species or their history. The most 
consummate ignoramus may possess an ex¬ 
tensive library, but no one will respect him 
more for having implements which he can¬ 
not or docs not put to good use. 
Collecting mid preserving insects is but the 
A, B. C, of Entomological science ; still, it. is 
the parting polm, and as such, should be 
thoroughly studied and practiced before at¬ 
tempting anything beyond. I know men 
who have talked entomology (yes, and writ¬ 
ten considerably on the subject.) who never 
had in their possession specimens sufficient 
to (ill one box in an ordinarily good cabinet, 
their seeming knowledge all being drawn 
from a few books ; and it is very doubt ful if 
these men could name, at sight, a dozen, if 
any, of the most familiar species. Then, 
again, wo have men who 
go to the other extreme, 
constantly collecting and 
adding specimens by the 
hundreds or thousands to 
their cabiuets, but never | 
trouble themselves about 
having the various speci¬ 
mens named or placed in 
their proper position in 
the cabinet. My advice 
to the novice, in any 
branch of natural history 
is to never attempt more 
than he is sure of accom¬ 
plishing, and do what is 
done well. 
COLLECTING. 
1 agree with Prof. Ri¬ 
ley, who says:—“The 
greatest requisites in col¬ 
lecting are a pair of sharp | 
eyes and ready hands, 
with coolness and self' 
possession,’’ But it is well 
to have a little artificial 
aid, in the form of a good, 
strong net, to sweep over 
bushes and grass, and a 
lighter one to catch but- j 
terflics and moths upon 
the wing. The first may 
be made of good, strong 
muslin, fastened upon a 
hoop of wire, to which a 
handle four to six feet 
long should be attached. 
A piece of No. 0 or 8 wS'e, 
bent in the proper form, Fro. 2 * 
and the two euds driven into the end of a 
stick will answer very well for a frame upon 
which to put the net. But a fir -rate arti¬ 
cle, made of heavy brass wire, with socket 
for the handle, can be purchased for §1.50 of 
dealers, and a lighter one made of steel wire 
for 75 cents. The heavier of the two may 
be used tvs a sweep or drag net, as it is called, 
for beating bushes, grass and weeds for the 
smaller species, while the lighter is suitable 
for taking insects upon the wing. The form 
of the net is really immaterial; some prefer 
to have them nearly straight, like an ordi¬ 
nary bag, and about eighteen inches long 
and a foot in diameter I huve always used 
the tapering nets as shown in Fig 1, (a, b,) 
because, in taking very small species of bee¬ 
tles and bugs, in sweeping, the specimens 
are all thrown forward into the extreme 
point, where they remain comparatively 
stationary so long as the net is in motion, 
being less liable to become broken. The same 
is true in capturing a large moth or butterfly, 
it beiog sent forward into the small end of 
the net, where it is prevented from breaking 
or disfiguring itself in attempting to escape. 
For taking aquatic insects the same frame, 
as shown above, may be used ; but the net 
should bo quite shallow and made of some 
maternal that will allow the free passago of 
water through it. 
KIUINQ THE INSECTS. 
For convenience there is probably nothing 
better than a large, open mouth bottle, in the 
bottom of which ia placed a few grains of 
cyanide of potassium, held in position by a 
little cotton or a piece of perforated card¬ 
board. Tbo fumes of cyanide are a deadly 
poison, and will kill an insect almost instant¬ 
ly. T use tubes of the form shown in Fig. 2, 
having various sizes, from a quarter of an 
inchin diameter up io an Inch and a half. 
But any large vial with broad neck will 
answer the purpose. All hard shell insects, 
such ns beetles and bugs, may be put into 
alcohol as soon as taken and then mounted 
at one’s convenience ; but those that are cov¬ 
ered with fine hairs, like Nome of our May 
beetles and JSuromylas are injured in ap¬ 
pearance by being wotted. Butterflies and 
moths should always be kept, dry, and either 
killed with the fumes of cyanide, ether, chlo¬ 
roform, or some Bimilar substance, with which 
it is not necessary to place them In direct 
contact. As soon as a specimen is dead it. 
may be taken out of the collecting bottle and 
put into a box between layers of soft tissue 
paper carried along for this purpose. It is 
also well to have a collecting box, lined with 
sheet cork—a small cigar box will answer ; 
then, if a very delicate or rare specimen is 
taken, it may be pinned immediately after 
being killed, and the proper setting of it. 
deferred until one gets home. 
If specimens of moths and butterflies are 
likely to be captured in greater number and 
more rapidly than it would bo safe to crowd 
I hctn into the bottle, the smaller spec cs may 
be killed before taking from the net by touch¬ 
ing them with a drop of chloroform applied 
with a camels’ hair pencil. A small vial of 
chloroform may be earned in the pocket for 
this purpose. 1 have always found that 
the cyanide bottle was the safest place to 
kill the most delicate moth ; for even if it. 
did flutter about there was less danger of its 
becoming broken or otherwise disfigured hi 
beating its wings against smooth glass than 
a rough net. Should the specimens become 
rigid by any dolay in reaching a place for 
mounting them properly, they may be read¬ 
ily relaxed bv placing in a close, warm, moist 
atmospheres for a few hours. These coudi 
tions may he secured in various ways ; but 
the usual method is to put. them in a light 
vessel, in the bottom of which is a few inches 
in depth of clean sand, this beiug wet with 
warm or hot water, a cloth or paper spread 
over it, and upon this tbo specimens are laid 
until t.hejr wings and legs me fully relaxed, 
when they are taken out and mounted. 
MOUNTING SPECIMENS. 
Never use but one kind of pin for any one 
order, if you desire uniformity in the appear¬ 
ance of the specimens. Those manufactured 
by KLAEOER of Berlin, and known by the 
maker’s name, are the best to be found in 
our market; besides, they are in common 
use with all of our. well known scientific en¬ 
tomologists. Heretofore, it has been some¬ 
times dillicult to obtain these pins in small 
quantities without importing them direct ; 
but they can now be lmd cheaper than the 
inf erior so rts offered by some of our opti¬ 
cians in this and other cities, i have been 
obliged several times to use t he common Her¬ 
man pin, such aa arc generally kept by deal¬ 
ers in such art idea, but shall regret it. until 
the last specimen is cast, out of my cabinet 
and they are replaced by genuine. Klaeger 
pins. There are several sizes of these pins, 
numbered from 00 to 7—which is the largest; 
Nos. 2, 3 aud 4 are the sizes most, useful for 
our common Insects, but a few of the larger 
numbers may be needed for mounting the 
largest moths or beetles, 
HOW PINNED. 
Beetles (CoUoptern) should have the pin 
thrust through the right elytron, passing out 
on the under-side, between tbo second,and 
third pair of legs. The specimens should 
then be raised to within a quarter of an inch 
of the head of the pin. If every specimen is 
placed at the sumo bight they will look very 
uniform when put into the cabinet. It is 
also well to thrust the pin through the speci¬ 
men in such a manner that the head of the 
insect shall be a trifle the highest, when the 
pin is exactly perpendicular. Uniformity in 
all that pertains to the arranging of a cabi¬ 
net. is next in importance to the perfection 
of the specimens. Small beetles or specimens 
in other orders through which a No. 2 pin 
canuot be thrust wit hout danger of breaking 
or otherwise injuring the appearance, should 
be mounted upon the points of rriangnlar- 
Bhaped pallets cut from common cardboard. 
These pallets may be 1 filth of fin inch wide, 
tapering to a point, and%ths of an inch long. 
If larger than this, they will take up more 
room than necessary. For fastening the 
specimens upon these little points, I use 
nothing hut pure white gum arabic, dissolved 
in water; and when of the proper consist¬ 
ence, add a few drops of glycerine to pre¬ 
vent souring or becoming too brittle when 
dried. Having tried almost every thing rec¬ 
ommended by entomologists, destroying 
hundreds of specimens in experimenting, I 
have at last settled upon one of the most 
simple and easily procured of all the gums 
and resins. To get these minute insects neat¬ 
ly set upon the pallets is an operation requir¬ 
ing a little patience and practice, after winch 
It may be done very rapidly. 
My way of doing it. is as follows Spread 
out the specimens to be mounted upon a 
sheet of white paper, laving each upon its 
back ; then with a camel’s hair pencil spread 
out their legs a little in order to reach the I 
body readily with t he cardboard points. By 
turning the'head of each specimen towards 
you, and taking one of the pallets by the 
larger end with a pair of small forceps held 
in the right hand—dipping the point in the 
gum, placing it directly across the insect, 
then inverting it—we have our specimen in 
a proper position. The pin is then thrust 
through the end of the pallet:, which is push¬ 
ed ui) to the proper bight, aa is shown in Fig. 
ed no to the proper bight, ua is shown in Fig. 
3. The pallet pointing to the loft, and the 
insects’ head from the operator. The 
novice should not forget these rules 
in mounting, for should he put a 
^~rt specimen on the right band side of 
* the pin or the head pointing the 
other way, it would be considered 
an inexcusable blunder. Some sheet 
cork, or other soft, material of a 
similar kind, must be near at hand 
in which tq stick the pins holding 
the specimens, The pallets may be 
put upon the pins, t heir points gum¬ 
med. and the specimens lifted and 
1^** put, in place with a wet pencil point. 
Fio. 3. some may choose this plan in prefer¬ 
ence t,o the one described, but It will make no 
particular difference ho wit is done provided 
it is well done and finished in the proper 
manner. 
In mounting a large number of specimens 
of a single species, aud for the pu rpoao of 
exchanging or sending a way for sale, the 
points may be dispensed with, using plain 
strips of the cardboard, placing any number 
upon each. The pevsqn who receives the 
specimen in this condition has only to moist¬ 
en the gum, remove them and mouut again 
to suit himself. Very minute specimens in 
all the different, orders may be mounted in 
tlie same way : but the points are chiefly 
employed with Beetles lColcnpte.ro) and Bugs 
(Ucmiplera.) Upon ouch pin there should 
also be placed a label at the time of mount¬ 
ing, indicating the locality from whence it 
came, the name of the States or Territories 
usually being sufQctent.ly explicit for this 
kind of information—Afe, for Maine. Te-x, for 
Texas, and so on through the list. This pre¬ 
serving a record of the locality from whence 
the different specimens came, or were taken, 
is very important, as it furnishes us with in¬ 
formation regarding the geographical dis¬ 
tribution of species. 
in mounting the larger kinds of Coleoptera 
the autennse and legs should be put in a posi¬ 
tion to rnukc the specimens took as natural 
as possible without taking up too much room, 
and held there nntd thoroughly dry ana 
rigid. This is usually done by using thin 
sheet cork, through which the pin carrying 
the specimen is thrust, then other pins arc 
placed around the limbs holding them in a 
proper position. With t'.in Lonffloorns, the 
antenna! are thrown over the back. The legs 
should not be spread out at right angles, as 
frequently seen in amateur collections, but 
confined close to the oudy or partly under it; 
for the less they are exposed the less liable 
to be broken off in handling. 
In mounting Bugs (Flaniptera) the pin 
should he thrust through the seutel or small 
triangular piece just behind the Lhorux, and 
in the center ot the. (tack, aud not on one 
side, as is done in mounting Beetles. The 
reason of the variation will become ob¬ 
vious upon an examination of the species in 
both orders. 
Butterflies, moths, ilios and other similar 
insects of a size large enough to be mounted 
in tiiis manner, the pins are put through the 
center of the thorax, and the wings spread 
out, as shown in Figures 1 and 5. To do this 
properly requires certain implements, the 
most important of which are what are termed 
“ setting boards,” which may be made by 
any one having ingenuity enough to use a 
plane, hummer and saw. Two pieces of 
board two feet, long, (more or less,) three 
inches wide and about one-third of an inch 
thick, placed side by side but one-half of an 
inch apart, then strips nailed across the ends 
to hold them in position and we have the 
frame of a setting board complete. Upon 
the under side ami over the half inch space, 
strips of sheet cork should be glued or fas¬ 
tened ou with small tacks. The strips nailed 
across the ends should be on the under side 
and about an inch square. Now, in mount¬ 
ing a large motb or butterfly, the body is 
placed in cbe groove or space between the 
two strips of boards and the pin thrust 
through the cork below, which holds the 
specimen in place. The wings are spread out 
in tile proper position and held there by 
strips or card board placed across them and 
held firmly by {fins thrust through the ends 
and into the wood beneath. Different sizes 
of these setting boards may be made to suit 
the different species of insects to be mounted. 
The specimens should be allowed to re¬ 
main on the setting board until thoroughly 
dry, the time varying from one to three 
or four weeks. A tight case with wire net¬ 
ting over the opposite sides, will bo found 
very convenient for holding the setting 
board, because if the specimens are left 
i exposed In a room they are very 1 iable to 
bo injured, either by dust, ants, or other 
insects. 
BOXES FOR SPECIMENS. 
There are probably no two entomologists in 
J this country using the same style of boxes 
i for their specimens. The size of boxeB or 
I drawers used vary from two feet square and 
I IX inches deep to those of 8x12 and three or 
more inches deep, and this ought to be 
enough to show the novice that size or 
style of cabinet is immaterial, and that 
they may be varied to suit the taste or 
purse of the owner. Small boxes are, how¬ 
ever, more convenient than large ones if 
their contents are to be frequent!v exam¬ 
ined for the purpose of study. They may 
be made with glass top, or merely a box 
with a lid; but in all cases they should bo 
kept tight in order t,o keep out Anlhrcni, 
and other minute insects which are known 
to attack and dest roy cabinet specimens. 
The bottom of whatever style of boxes 
that are used should lie covered with sheet 
cork not less than a quarter of an inch in 
thickness. 'Hie cork should be glued in, and 
after drying under pressure, rubbed smooth 
with sandpaper. The entire inside of the 
box should ua lined with thin white en¬ 
ameled paper, using paste made of starch 
for this purpose. Felt, soft kinds of wo,od, 
pith of corn stalks, and many other similar 
materials have been from time to time recom¬ 
mended for lining insect boxes, bub they are 
Fig. 4. 
all inferior to cork, and there is really noth¬ 
ing gained by their use, but frequently they 
are the source of great losses, if one cannot 
afford the proper materials for preserving 
specimens no had better let entomology 
alone. 
For a collection of any considerable size, 
the boxes containing the specimens should 
bo in the form of drawers and kept in a 
case closed with tight fitting doors. 
Cabinets must bo kept in a dry place, and 
an upper room is usually preferable to a 
lower one, especially in the country, for there 
is no danger of keeping too dry, but there is 
of becoming damp aud moldy. For keeping 
mites out of the eases, creosote is probably 
a~s good as anything; a few drops applied to 
a small ball of cotton or wool and fastened 
in one corner of the box will usually kill any 
intruding insect. In some localities Dtrme fi¬ 
fes and other pests are abundant, and con¬ 
siderable vigilance is necessary to keep them 
out of a cabinet. Camphor guui Is fre¬ 
quently recommended for keeping out these 
intruders, but It is liable to injure the. ap¬ 
pearance of the specimens, making them 
look greasy, 
1 have never been obliged to use anything 
to keep mites out of my own cabinet, and 
attribute the exemption from all the museum 
pests, from my care to have light cases, and 
a careful examination of all specimens re¬ 
ceived in exchange from other collections. 
If l have the least suspicion that mites may 
be present in a specimen, it Is immersed in 
ether for a day or two before putting it 
away In the cabinet. Every box in a cabi¬ 
net should be carefully examined at least, 
once a month, and the presence of mites 
may be readily detected by the lino dust-liko 
debris found upon the paper under the in¬ 
fected specimen. 
For handling mounted specimens, forceps 
of various Styles are made, ranging in price 
from fifty cents upwards. Womethingof the 
kind is indispensable for Setting the pins in 
the cases, as it is better not to handle the 
pins with thumb ami finger any more fre¬ 
quently than is actually necessary. Good, 
clear, well seasoued, white pine is one of 
the best kinds of wood for making the boxes 
and far preferable to red cedar, cherry, 
black walnut, and other more expensive 
kinds. It is also a good plan to give the 
boxes a coat of. shellac varnish after they 
Fig, 5. 
are finished and ready to go into the cases, 
as this will serve as a protection against the 
absorption of moisture, from the atmosphere. 
In nearly all cities and villages there are 
box manufactories where the desired sizes 
can be procured much cheaper and better 
than can be mode by hand by an ordinary 
carpenter. 
COST OF MATERIAL. 
Excellent sheet cork, 3t£ inches wide, 12 
long, and a quarter of an inch thick, costs in 
New York, one dollar and twenty-five cents , 
per dozen sheets. Klaeger pins in packages 
of 300, §1,23 per 1,000, sent post-paid to any 
part of the country. V»*ry good strong 
straight, forceps, fifty to seventy-five cents; 
crooked points, one to two dollars: small 
brass forceps, which are handy for holding 
pallets and patting or. labels, moving small 
specimens on the pins, etc., etc., thirty to fif¬ 
ty cents. Tbo above and all other requisites 
tor making a pood entomological cabinet can 
be obtained Through the Rural Purchasing 
Agency, Duane street, New York, 
