GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.--"Few departments of natural history offer
greater inducements or facilities to the student than Entomology. He
need not pass his threshold for material, for it may be found on every
hand and at all seasons. The directions for collecting, preserving, and
studying insects might be extended indefinitely in detail, as volumes
have already been written on the subject; but the more general and
important instructions are soon given.
"Beginners are very apt to supply themselves with all sorts of
appliances advertised by natural history furnishing stores. Many of
these appliances, when it comes to real, practical field-work, are soon
abandoned as useless incumbrances; and the greater the experience, the
simpler will be the paraphernalia. My own equipment, on a collecting
trip, consists chiefly of a cotton umbrella, a strong and narrow steel
trowel or digger, a haversack slung across the shoulders, a cigar box
lined with sheet cork, and a small knapsack attached to a waistbelt
which girts a coat, not of many colors, but of many pockets, so made
that in stooping nothing falls out of them. The umbrella is one of the
indispensables. It shields, when necessary, from old Sol's scorching
rays and from the pelting, drenching storm; brings within reach, by its
hooked handle, many a larva-freighted bough which would otherwise remain
undisturbed; and forms an excellent receptacle for all insects that may
be dislodged from bush or branch. Opened and held inverted under a bough
with the left hand, while the right manipulates a beating-stick, cut for
the occasion, it will be the recipient of many a choice specimen that
would never have been espied amid its protective surroundings. Some
collectors use an umbrella painted or lined on the inside with white, to
facilitate the detection of any object that drops into it; but as there
are fully as many, if not more, pale and white insects as there are dark
or black ones, the common dark umbrella is good enough for all ordinary
purposes; and if any improvement on the ordinary cotton umbrella is
desired, it should be in the way of a joint or knuckle about the middle
of the handle, which will facilitate its packing and using. The trowel
is valuable for prying off the loosened bark from old trees, whether
felled or standing, and for digging into the ground or into decaying
stumps and logs. The haversack is for the carriage of different kinds of
boxes (those made of tin being best) intended for larval and other forms
which it is necessary to bring home alive for breeding purposes; and if
made with a partition so that the filled and empty boxes may be
separated, all the better; it may also be used for nets and other
apparatus to be mentioned, and for such provender as is necessary on the
trip. The knapsack may be made on the plan of a cartridge box, of stout
canvas or leather, and should be of moderate size and slung onto the
belt so as to be slipped to any part of the waist and not hinder free
bodily motion. It may be used to carry bottles, phials, and other small
appliances, and should be accordingly partitioned and furnished with
loops or pockets on the inside. The cigar-box is for the reception of
pinned specimens, and may be slipped onto the belt, or buttoned to the
trousers by means of leather.
"The greatest requisites in collecting are a pair of sharp eyes and
ready hands, with coolness and self-possession; but a few traps will
materially aid. One of the most important is the hand-net, which may be
made so as to subserve the two purposes of a sweeping and an air-net."
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--The Butterfly net-frame.]
"The frame of the net which I use is illustrated herewith (Fig. 44), and
will be found strong and serviceable and conveniently portable. It is
constructed as follows: Take two pieces of stout brass wire, each about
20 inches long; bend them half-circularly and at one end by a folding
hinge having a check on one side, _b_. The other ends are bent and
beaten into two square sockets, _f_, which fit to a nut sunk and
soldered into one end of a brass tube, _d_. When so fitted, they are
secured by a large-headed screw, _e_, threaded to fit into the
nut-socket, and with a groove wide enough to receive the back of a
common pocket-knife blade. The wire hoop is easily detached and folded,
as at _c_, for convenient carriage; and the handle may be made of any
desired length by cutting a stick and fitting it into the hollow tube
_a_, which should be about 6 inches long. It is well to have two
separate hoops, one of lighter wire, furnished with silk gauze or some
other light material, for catching flying insects, and one which is
stouter and furnished with a net of stronger material for sweeping
non-flying specimens.
"Another still more simple, but less convenient frame, is thus described
by my friend F. G. Sanborn, of Boston, Mass.:
'Make a loop of strong iron or brass wire, of about 3-16ths of an inch
in thickness, so that the diameter of the loop or circle will not exceed
12 inches, leaving an inch to an inch and a half of wire at each end
bent at nearly right angles. Bind the two extremities of the wire
together with smaller wire (Fig. 45, _a_), and tin them by applying a
drop of muriate of zinc, then holding it in the fire or over a gas flame
until nearly red hot, when a few grains of block tin or soft solder
placed upon them will flow evenly over the whole surface and join them
firmly together. Take a Maynard rifle cartridge tube, or other brass
tube of similar dimensions; if the former, file off the closed end or
perforate it for the admission of the wire, and having tinned it in the
same manner on the inside, push a tight-fitting cork half way through
(Fig. 45, _c_) and pour into it melted tin or soft solder, and insert
the wires; if carefully done, you will have a firmly constructed and
very durable foundation for a collecting net. The cork being extracted
will leave a convenient socket for inserting a stick or walking cane to
serve as a handle.'
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--The Sanborn net-frame.]
"My friend, J. A. Lintner, of Albany, N. Y., makes very good use, in his
ordinary promenades, of a telescopic fish-rod, with a head (Fig. 46)
screwed on to one end, in which to fasten an elastic brass coil on which
the net is drawn, but which when not in use sits snugly inside his silk
hat.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--Clamp of the Lintner net.]
"The bag should taper to the bottom, and in any case its length should
be fully twice the diameter of the hoop, so that by giving the net a
twist, the mouth may be closed and the contents thus secured. The
sweeping-net may be protected around the hoop with leather, and in use
should be kept in a steady and continued back-and-forth motion, over and
touching the plants, until the contents are to be examined; when, by
placing the head at the opening and quietly surveying the restless
inmates, the desiderata may be secured and the rest turned out. A sudden
dash of the air-net will usually lay any flying object at the bottom. A
net for aquatic insects may be made on the same principle, but should be
stout, with the meshes open enough to allow free passage of water, and
the bag not quite as deep as the diameter of the hoop. A forceps net,
which consists of two gauze or bobbinet covered frames, having riveted
handles, so as to close like a pair of scissors, is employed for small
insects; but I find little use for it. A coarse sieve, together with a
white towel or sheet, will be found of great service for special
occasions, particularly in the spring, when the search for minute
insects found under old leaves, or for pupae around the butts of trees,
is contemplated. With the sheet spread on the ground, and a few handfuls
of leaves and leafy mold sifted over it, many a minute specimen will be
separated from the coarser particles and drop to the sheet, where the
eye may readily detect it. Conversely, the earth taken from around trees
may be sifted so as to leave in the sieve such larger objects as pupae,
etc. Another favorite plan, with some collectors, of obtaining
specimens, especially night-flying moths, is by 'sugaring.' This
consists of applying to the trunks of trees or to strips of cloth
attached to the trees some sweet, attractive, and stupefying
preparation. Diluted molasses or dissolved brown sugar, mixed with rum
or beer, is most frequently employed. I have found sugaring of little
use till after the blossoming season, and it is almost impossible to so
stupefy or intoxicate an insect that it will remain upon the sugared
tree till the next morning. I generally sugar at eve, and visit the tree
several times between sundown and midnight, armed with wide-mouthed
killing-bottles and accompanied by a second person, who carries a
dark-lantern. Isolated trees, on the edges of woods, give the best
results. Everybody knows how some poor moths will persist in flitting
around a light until they singe their wings; and, as many insects are
strongly attracted to bright artificial light, it may be employed with
good results, especially during warm and damp evenings. The collector
should never go unprovided with a small box or tube full of different
sized pins (a corked cartridge-tube makes a good box,) a pair or two of
forceps, a pair of scissors, a little mucilage, and the killing
apparatus to be described."
With these general remarks, it will be well to consider some of the
important paraphernalia more in detail.