they are good or damaged specimens as soon as they are taken out
of the net; if the latter, he should let them go (unless unique or
rare forms), for an imperfect or rubbed butterfly is comparatively
valueless. If it be a perfect specimen, the wings should be folded
together over the back, and a sharp nip on the thorax between the
fingers will kill it in a moment. Each specimen should be placed in a
folded paper envelope, made by crossfolding an oblong piece of soft
paper in the shape of a triangle and folding down the overlapping
edges. Packed side by side, a square tin will hold hundreds of these
paper envelopes, which can be stored in this manner indefinitely
or till the collector is ready to relax and set them. Thousands of
butterflies are sent in these papers from all parts of the world to
London for sale, and are usually disposed of at so much per hundred.
Moths cannot well be treated in this manner on account of the thickness
of their bodies and the looseness of the scales upon their wings;
they have therefore to be pinned in a corklined box as they are
collected, but later on can be relaxed and their wings set as with the
butterflies. When we come to the tiny moths known as MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA,
we find they require special treatment, and most lepidopterists take a
box fitted with narrow setting boards, when out for a few days, and set
their captures every evening before they become stiff, for otherwise
many make very unsatisfactory specimens.
In collecting HYMENOPTERA the different groups need special treatment;
and where there are several sexes dissimilar in size and structure they
should be carefully kept together. Ants are always best collected from
their nest, and a number of specimens of the different sexes secured
and placed in a tube of methylated spirits. The locality and date
should be written with a hard lead pencil upon a slip of paper and
placed in the tube with them. A series can afterwards be sorted out and
mounted, the large ones on pins and the smaller on gummed card. Wasps
should be pinned, and when the forms with wingless females (Thynnidae
and Mutillidae) are obtained _in copula_, a very common state in
midsummer, they should be captured and killed together and the paired
insects mounted with a check mark on each pin beside the locality and
date label, so that no mistake can be made as to their identity.
The bulk of the HEMIPTERA will with their hard integument carry
well in spirit or carbolised sawdust. Some of the more delicate of
the HOMOPTERA, such as the Psyllidae, Aphidae, and Coccidae (Scale
insects), should be collected with their food plant. They can be
obtained in various stages of their development; the perfect insects
can be bred in confinement upon their food plants. They should be
mounted on card when fresh, but, if not, can be placed in the camphor
tin or even a dry tube plugged with cotton wool, but if the tube be
corked they will spoil, owing to the moisture generated within the
tube. In the case of scale insects, portions of the leaves, bark, or
twigs infested with the tests of the injects can be cut to a uniform
size and mounted with gum or small pin on card, and if mounted
carefully make very neat specimens. Many of the larger HOMOPTERA, such
as cicadas, fulgorids and frog-hoppers, can be mounted, with the wings
outspread, but should not go into spirits.
ORTHOPTERA, particularly the large phasmids, are very unsatisfactory
creatures to deal with when captured; often too large to go into a
killing bottle, they have to be brought into camp alive. If a female,
it may be kept a while to lay its eggs, as they are very interesting
objects. The eggs can be mounted on card or placed in a small pill box
and pinned beside the insect in the box. These insects, as well as all
large grasshoppers, should be cut down the abdomen on the under side
and the contents removed with forceps; a little paris green should then
be sprinkled inside or some weak corrosive sublimate applied with a
brush; then a wad of cotton wool should be pushed into the cavity to
give shape to the empty body when it dries. In the case of the larger
cockroaches, which are often very brittle when cleaned and dried, a
bit of sheet cork instead of cotton wool can be shaped for a false
body, coated with gum and slipped in; when pinned through the cork it
makes a very firm specimen. Some collectors mount their grasshoppers
and other orthoptera with the wings outspread, and as show specimens
they look best, but take up a great deal of room; others mount the
wings on one side, and leave the others folded down in their natural
condition in repose, so that some idea is given of the natural form,
and the outspread wings can also be examined for specific differences.
In collecting phasmids and stick insects for transmission by post or
packing in small space, the best plan is to get a slender stick and lay
the insect along it with outstretched legs and folded wings, and then
wind soft worsted thread round it from end to end; it can be unwound
and mounted properly when received at its destination. Orthoptera
should not be put into spirit with other specimens, as they lose their
colour, become soft, and break up easily; they will however travel well
in a 5 per cent. solution of formalin; this has a hardening effect and
only alters the colour slightly unless the insects are kept in it for a
considerable time. If kept in formalin for say a week and then packed
in sawdust they will not rot or spoil as they often do when killed and
packed before they are dried.
NEUROPTERA are delicate creatures, and many of them keep best if killed
and placed in papers as in the case of butterflies, unless there is
room to pin them in a store box. The bodies of the dragon-flies rot
very quickly and break off very easily; if carefully handled they
can be placed _alive_ in papers with their wings folded over their
backs, and will remain alive for several days, long enough to travel a
considerable distance by post when dispatched direct to a specialist,
who will then receive them with their natural colours. If kept in the
store box it is advisable to impale the slender body with a bristle
or grass stem, inserting it at the front of the thorax and pushing it
through to the tip of the abdomen, but not far enough to injure the
anal appendages. Many specimens can be pinned in the store boxes with
the wings closed, and relaxed and mounted with outspread wings months
afterwards.
DIPTERA is another group that requires delicate manipulation,
particularly such species as “daddy-long-legs” (_Tipulidae_),
mosquitoes (_Culicidae_), &c. When Skuse was collecting he always
carried a pocket-box containing pinned card slips of various lengths,
and a tube of gum, and, after killing the insects in a chloroform
tube, he mounted them at once while they were flexible and the legs not
detached. Theobald mounts his mosquitoes on fine pins, which are pushed
from beneath through a circular piece of cardboard (these circular
cards are stamped out with a wad-cutter); the legs are spread out and
an ordinary pin pushed through the circle to pin them in a cabinet. The
larger flies are pinned dry in the ordinary manner, and the smaller
ones are carded.
* * * * *
ANIMAL PARASITES, which belong to quite a number of groups, are
obtained on the live birds or mammals as soon as they are shot. When
the animals are dead the parasites leave the bodies as soon as they
begin to get cold. They should be transferred at once to small spirit
tubes, in which should also be placed a slip of paper upon which is
written in lead pencil the name of the mammal or bird upon which it was
taken, the date of capture, and the locality.
* * * * *
LAMP AND NIGHT COLLECTING.--In suitable localities a great haul of
insects can often be obtained on a warm sultry summer night by laying
a sheet on the ground with a powerful lamp on it and hanging another
sheet behind the lamp; the insects are attracted to the light, and
falling on the sheet are then easily captured. In camp many fine
insects may be obtained round the lamp or camp fire; and during the wet
seasons in North Queensland and the north coast of Australia I have
taken many rare insects in this manner.
SUGARING is greatly practised in Europe; a suitable spot in a forest
being chosen, a mixture of sugar and beer that have been boiled
together is smeared upon the tree trunks and fences; at night-fall the
ground is visited with a bull’s-eye lantern, and the insects (moths
chiefly) that come to feed are captured, sometimes in great numbers.
This has been tried by our collectors in Australia; but I have never
had any success myself nor heard of anyone here who has had better
fortune.
TRAPPING.--When settled down in a fixed collecting camp many beetles
and other insects can be obtained by trapping. If in brush or forest
land a number of empty jam or milk tins with the tops cut neatly off
are buried, with the edges level with the surface of the ground, many
carnivorous ground beetles tumble in, and will be found there on
going round in the morning. If a bone or bit of meat be placed at the
bottom of the trap, it often attracts certain beetles that feed on
such food. In the same manner a dead bird or small animal half buried
in the ground, or placed under a sheet of bark or log, will prove an
attractive bait for the burying beetles and other curious and often
rare species; a dead animal should therefore be always investigated by
the beetle hunter, as it often hides entomological treasures.
Fallen timber always has a great attraction for all bark-feeding
weevils, longicorns, and other small wood-borers that come to it as
soon as the bark begins to wither. Here also come Cleridae, Antribidae
and other carnivorous beetles to feed upon the smaller wood-borers, and
many an hour can be profitably spent over a large fallen tree or bit of
brush a few days after it has been chopped down, particularly in the
tropical scrubs. Slicing the bark of living trees that exude any sap,
and letting the bark hang down, attracts insects that feed on the sap
or take shelter under loose bark; a number of such blazed tree trunks
round a camp is a great source of revenue, particularly in the summer.
There are many other devices that the collector will only gain by
experience in the field, which will enable him to obtain many curious
specimens that a novice would never find.
MOUNTING, SETTING, AND STORING.--Having collected specimens, the
next question is the storage of the insects. All entomological
specimens (other than those kept in spirit tubes) must be preserved
in close-fitting boxes lined with cork, linoleum, or other suitable
substance, and the lining covered with clean white paper pasted over
it. Many different kinds of store boxes are used by entomologists who
cannot afford the luxury of cabinets; most of them are made of deal,
with hinges in the centre; the two sides of the box fold together,
fitting closely over a rim along the inner edge of one half; and they
are fastened with two hooks on the outside. These English boxes made of
light pine can be obtained in Sydney; they fit beautifully and are much
lighter than the local ones made of kauri, but are slightly dearer. To
make a useful store box, nail down the lid of a large-sized cigar box
(cleaning, sandpapering, and varnishing it); cut the box through the
centre with a fine saw, and then fit a projecting rim into one half
with wood from another cigar box, so that the two halves fit close
together over the rim without needing catches. This is handy only for a
temporary store box, as it is rather difficult to get the two halves to
fit accurately, and when made is rather small and deep.
Specimens should be pinned or mounted on cards on a uniform plan;
nothing looks worse than insects mounted in different styles. Except
the smaller specimens, beetles and other insects should be pinned, and
the most serviceable pins are perhaps Kirby, Beard and Co.’s Nos. 1
and 5, though there are several useful intermediate sizes. When an
insect is too delicate to pin with either of these, mount it on card,
for more insects are lost or damaged through mounting with slender
pins that refuse to stick into the cork, and curl up or buckle in the
middle, than in any other manner. There are however many professional
naturalists who always use the soft, slender, very fine, Continental
pins, but they require very delicate handling, and are not suitable
for the general collector. There is a great difference of opinion as
to how insects should be set and pinned; many, particularly English
naturalists, advocate low setting, while most of our collectors set all
insects high, as the insects when thus pinned are raised well above
the bottom of the box, and their legs and antennae are not so liable
to get broken; all mites, dust and dirt will be noticed at once; and
the name affixed beneath can be read without removing the insect. In
the case of low setting, the insects are resting on the floor of the
box; they are liable to damage with the least bump; anthrenus and mites
can feed away under cover without being seen until the remains of the
infested specimen fall apart; the insect has to be lifted up every time
to see its name; while the locality and date-label is always liable to
fall off. My standard height (first suggested to me by Mr. Masters to
use when working in the Macleay Museum, Sydney) is the lid of a wax
matchbox, which is about ¾ of an inch. A small hole is pierced through
the centre of the lid; the beetle is placed on the top of the lid, and
the pin pressed through it and the hole in the lid until the point
touches the table beneath. The pin, in the case of a beetle, should
be pushed through the upper half of the elytron (wing cover) on the
right-hand side when the head is facing the same way as the person
mounting, the pin coming out on the under surface between the middle
and hind legs. The antennae and legs may be arranged with pins, but,
during the season in Australia, insects are so plentiful that there is
not always time to more than roughly open them out.
In the case of insects too small to pin, they are carded. Sheets of
the best white cardboard (little thicker than that of a visiting card)
are cut into neat strips of uniform width and length for different
specimens. No. 1 pins are run through the cards at one end to bring
the under side of the card the same height up the pin as the under
surface of the directly pinned insect. To give the little card mounts
a finished appearance the card used in my collections is ruled with a
double line of red ink, the first thick and the inner line fine; each
strip of card is cut along the thick red line, and the pin is pushed
through the red band. Where one has more than a single specimen, two
or more can be mounted side by side on the same card, with their legs
and antennae neatly set out, one with the dorsal surface uppermost,
and the second one gummed with the reverse side upward, so that the
specific characters of both sides of the insect can be examined without
having to remove the specimen from the card.
Moths, butterflies, cicadas, lace-wings and other large winged insects
when fresh, or after they have been relaxed, are pinned down on setting
boards; the body should rest in the parallel groove down the centre
of the board, and the wings should be opened out and strapped down on
either side with braces of paper or cardboard. The wings should be
expanded in a natural manner, and so that the whole of the venation
and beauty of the wings are shown. A setting board is simply a strip
of soft pine wood with two sheets of cork gummed on the upper surface,
with a groove between them to receive the body; fine white paper is
pasted over the whole of the board. They are made of various sizes to
suit both large and small moths. Most of the old setting boards had the
cork rounded so that the wings drooped downwards; afterwards many used
them with the outer side turning upward so that the wings were raised
at the extremities; those in general use now are perfectly flat.
All these insects are easily relaxed by placing them between damp
blotting paper on the top of some wet sand in a plate, and covering
them over with a bell glass or similar vessel; within twenty-four hours
they are limp enough to be pinned and their wings opened out without
any danger.
NUMBERING AND LABELLING.--Every specimen, as soon as it is mounted,
should have a small label attached to the pin; this can be written with
a fine-pointed pen on small slips of paper as distinctly as possible,
with the exact locality in which the insect was collected, the date
of capture, the name or initials of the collector, and the food plant
when known. It is however sometimes better to pin a second slip below
for the food plant and a distinctive catalogue number. Every young
naturalist starting a collection should have consecutive numbers on
each series of specimens he collects, and keep a note-book or stock
register, in which to enter any information about the insect bearing
the number. These notes in the course of time will become more and
more valuable, and give an added value to the collection. Many young
naturalists may think of labels only as a record of the collector’s
name, but the locality and food plant are the important points, and to
the working entomologist a collection of Australian insects without
any such records have lost half their value. The label is placed on the
top of the matchbox lid, and the pin bearing the specimen is pushed
through to bring the label about halfway between the specimen and the
point of the pin, which allows of the label being easily read, and when
uniformly placed adds to the neat appearance of the collection. I have
mentioned a matchbox lid as a standard height for mounting specimens,
but when constantly at work something more solid is required. Take a
small block of soft deal wood about 4 inches in length by 2 in width,
and just under ¾ of an inch in height; bore two or three holes through
it at one end, tack a sheet of white cardboard over the top, and above
this at one end tack a slip of cork 1½ inches in width; then make holes
through the cardboard above the holes bored in the deal block, and you
have an excellent mounting table to work upon.
An entomologist does not require much apparatus after his boxes and
setting boards, but one indispensable article is a pair of strong
entomological forceps with curved tips; the curved extremities allow of
the pin being gripped below the insect when fixing it in or lifting it
out of the box. These in the hands of an expert are as good as an extra
pair of fingers, both for moving about specimens and picking up pins.
A second fine-pointed pair of forceps is useful for handling specimens
when mounting, or for picking up small active insects under logs and
stones. Two needles mounted in pen handles are invaluable for arranging
the legs and antennae when being set. Fine-pointed paint brushes for
cleaning dust and dirt from the insects are used; and a pair of pointed
scissors are necessary for opening the large-bodied insects, cutting
mounting cards, labels and such-like. A pocket lens should be always
at hand, for without it one loses half the beauty and details of
structure, and it would often be difficult to classify the specimens.
Later on, the entomologist will find a dissecting microscope, which
leaves both hands free to work, an indispensable part of his outfit.
A bottle of gum is another requisite, and different recipes are given
in manuals on the subject; at one time a mixture of tragacanth gum was
generally used, but the great objection to its use is that, though very
fine and transparent, it is very difficult to remove from the specimen
when necessary to remount or to detach it for examination. The mixture
now generally used is made of clean lumps of gum arabic dissolved in
water to the consistency of thin honey, with a little ground lump sugar
added; a few drops of carbolic acid are added, which, though apt to
discolour it if much is used, will keep the mixture sweet, and prevents
mould getting on the specimens. The gum should always be kept corked
to prevent dust being introduced, which would show very readily on the
mount.
* * * * *
CARE OF COLLECTIONS.--After the collections are formed, the insects
pinned, labelled, and placed in their natural groups, one’s work is by
no means finished; thousands of valuable specimens, and even types,
have been irretrievably damaged or completely destroyed from want
of a little care in preserving them from mites and museum beetles
(_Anthrenus_). The specimens may be perfectly clean and stored in
close-fitting boxes, and yet later may become infested, by the addition
of specimens that have been in an infested collection. It is advisable
to keep a receiving box in which to place exchanged specimens for
some time before setting out in the collections; as a general rule a
collector eagerly adds any new specimen to his collections, and so at
the same time may introduce _Anthrenus_, often in the egg state, whose
little hairy larvae will rapidly destroy his insects. Some collectors
contend that they can preserve their specimens from the attacks of
museum pests by dipping them in a very weak solution of corrosive
sublimate in spirits of wine; but this can only be effectively done
in the case of beetles and other hard-bodied creatures, for it must
be remembered that this chemical is apt to affect the metallic and
bright-coloured tints of the specimens, and will even corrode the pins.
Camphor and napthaline kept in a muslin bag or cell in the corner of
the insect box will poison the air and certainly kill all mites, and
will keep some pests out; but _Anthrenus_ are able to live in this
poisoned atmosphere, and will still carry on the work of destruction.
Having once found _Anthrenus_ among the specimens, no time should be
lost before destroying them: a wad of cotton wool should be pinned in
the corner of the box, and chloroform or bisulphide of carbon poured
over it, and the box kept closed for about twenty-four hours, when it
should be again opened, all dead _Anthrenus_ shaken out, the remains
of damaged insects removed, and the most injured specimens (if common)
burnt. Another method when _Anthrenus_ are found is, to hold the
open box or drawer in front of the fire for a few moments, when the
pests, even if feeding within the insects, will wriggle out and can be
destroyed. When once a box has been infested it will require constant
attention for months after.
MOULD is also difficult to get rid of when once it appears in a box. If
all insects are well dried before they are placed in the boxes, and the
boxes kept in a dry place, there should be no mould among the contents,
but if a few damp or mould-infested insects be placed in a clean box
the mould may spread and eventually affect the whole collection,
especially if the room is inclined to be damp. When mould appears, the
affected insects should be cleaned with a brush dipped in benzine, and
a few drops of carbolic acid should be poured on a piece of cotton wool
in the box.
GREASE is often a great trouble to the collector. Many of the large
wood-moths, particularly the bodies, sometimes get into a very bad
state if not cleaned out thoroughly; and also on old specimens of
beetles the grease develops verdigris, corroding the pins. Soaking all
such specimens in benzine will soften the grease so that it can be
rubbed off with a soft brush.
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS AND TYPES.