640 Collecting and Rearing Insects 
“Ponds and streams shelter a vast throng of insects,and should be diligently 
dredged with the water-net, and stones and pebbles should be overturned 
for aquatic beetles, Hemiptera, and Dipterous larvae.” 
Much collecting may be done at night. Many nocturnal moths and 
beetles are attracted by bright lights: the city’s lamp-posts or your own 
brilliant bicycle-lamp of acetylene gas may be relied on. “Sugaring” 
for moths on warm nights, a favorite trick of moth-collectors, consists of 
smearing a mixture of stale beer and sirup in patches a foot square on the 
trunks of various trees, and then making repeated rounds of these trees 
with a dark lantern. Throw the light on the smeared spot and any feed¬ 
ing moth there will tarry long enough to be covered with a wide-mouthed 
bottle or swooped up with the net. 
Numerous small insects may be found in galls, in rolled-up leaves, and 
in bored canes. Where a plant shows leaves ragged or full of holes, there 
look for the hole-makers. In this kind of insect-hunting one is likely to 
get the immature stages of insects rather than the adult. So much the better. 
A collection should not be limited to grown-up insects alone, but should 
include eggs, larvae, chrysalids, cocoons, nests, and specimens of insect archi¬ 
tecture and industry, and specimens showing the character of the injuries 
to plants caused by insects. Any specimen which illustrates anything of 
the life, the biology, of insects should go into the collection. And everything 
should be labeled, accurately and fully. Locality and date, notes telling 
of such evanescent conditions as color or of such ecologic relations as character 
of the surroundings should be put on the specimen, or written into a “ collec¬ 
tions” book under a number corresponding with one on the specimen. The 
collecting of immature stages of insects leads naturally to attempts to rear 
these caterpillars, etc., at home or in the schoolroom or laboratory. 
Rearing insects.—While in ordinary collecting the insects are killed 
immediately after being caught, the collector going afield to obtain specimens 
to keep alive and rear must bring back his trophies unharmed. It is neces¬ 
sary that he modify his field equipment somewhat. He needs empty boxes 
and little jars, more than killing-bottles and cork-lined pinning-boxes. Do 
not trouble to punch air-holes in box-lids; enough air will get in through 
cracks and loose-fitting covers. Aquatic specimens, however, are easily 
suffocated by filling the water-jar too full and then screwing a tight cover 
on to prevent splashing. The jars and pails should be carried uncovered 
if possible, and they should be broad and shallow rather than narrow and 
deep. Do not try to bring too many water-insects back in one jar; crowd¬ 
ing is always fatal to them. With log-burrowing grubs and larvse bring in 
some chips and dust of the home log; with underground larvae bring in 
some soil. Simply because you find such larvae in a certain place is sufficient 
proof that their surroundings are of the right sort for them. 
