The Beetle and Butterfly Collection - A Guide to Collecting, Arranging and Preserving Insects at Home

Harland Coultas

Description

“The Beetle and Butterfly Collection” is a classic guide to collecting, arranging, and preserving various insects at home. Written with the amateur in mind, it contains simple, step-by-step instructions that will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in insect collecting and preservation. Contents include: “Setting-Out and Maintaining Beatles and Butterflies”, “The Parts of a Beetle”, “The Classification”, “Lepidoptera, or Butterflies and Moths”, “Classification of Butterflies”, “The Lepidarium”, “The Outline Sketch of the Insect Orders”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in a new, affordable, modern edition complete with the original text and artwork.

Sujets

• Sciences de la nature
• Biologie
• Zoologie
• Science
• Sciences et techniques
• Natural History

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 17 septembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781528767330
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Beetle and Butterfly Collection
A Guide to Collecting, Arranging and Preserving Insects at Home
BY HARLAND COULTAS
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Contents
Setting-Out and Mounting Beetles and Butterflies
Preservation and Arrangement of the Collection
The Parts of a Beetle
The Classification
Lepidoptera, or Butterflies and Moths
Classification of Butterflies
The Lepidarium
An Outline Sketch of the Insect Orders
Insects Having a Sudden and Complete Metamorphosis
Order IV.-Membrane-Winged Insects (Hymenoptera)
Order VIII.-Two-Winged Insects (Diptera)
Order III.-Nerve-Winged Insects (Neuroptera)
Order II.-Straight-Winged Insects (Orthoptera)
Order VII.-Half-Winged Insects (Hemiptera)
T HE B EETLE AND B UTTERFLY C OLLECTION .

SETTING-OUT AND MOUNTING BEETLES AND BUTTERFLIES.
W HEN it is intended to mount beetles, they should be taken out of the collecting bottle and placed on blotting-paper to dry.. A pin should be thrust down vertically through the right wing-cover, so that its point will come out between the second and third pair of legs, without breaking the joint. The insect should be placed two-thirds up the pin, a uniform height being preserved through the collection, so that all in the cabinet stand on the same level. Very small beetles, which the finest pin would divide, should be gummed to the point of a triangular piece of card, and the pin thrust through the broad part. The legs and antenna of larger insects must be spread out and properly arranged; for this purpose a slab of cork or turf will be found very useful. Sticking the pin in the slab so as to fix the insect, the organs of the mouth, where possible, the antenn , and the feet should be set out with smaller pins in natural positions, and then left to dry. If a cake of turf be used, pieces of wood may be nailed on behind to give it greater firmness and solidity.

Mounted Beetles.

Slabs for Mounting.
Some of the greater beetles, such as the common cockchafer ( Melolontha vulgaris ), may be spread out like butterflies in a flying position, not only their elytra or wing-covers being expanded, but their true membranous wings displayed.
It sometimes becomes necessary to take away old pins and introduce new ones, or to spread out and display the limbs of insects after they have become stiffened and dried. Insects of all kinds may be relaxed, and their limbs rendered pliable and soft, by placing them in a moist sand bath overnight; in the morning it will be found that, by carefully turning the pins, they may be drawn out, and that the limbs, antennae, and other parts can be re-adjusted.

Cockchafer.
In setting out insects it is desirable to have on one board insects approximating to each other in size, and collected, if possible, on the same day, so that all may be treated alike. The setting-board for butterflies consists of soft linden or poplar wood, containing a deep semi-cylindrical longitudinal groove, tapering on either side, so as to be the better adapted to the body of the insect. This board slopes a little towards the groove, in order to elevate the wings. When the wood is not soft enough, strips of cork may be glued to its surface the groove being furrowed in the cork; or two boards may be united with cross-pieces of wood, and the opening between them filled up with turf. It is desirable at first to draw lines across the setting-board at right angles with the groove, in order thereby to extend the wings at exactly the same height.

Setting-boards for Butterflies.
The body of the butterfly must be pinned down in the groove in such a position that the upper edges of the groove are at the same height as the centre line of the body of the insect, so that the wings may lie flat upon the board. With a needle the wings should be drawn apart until the inner margin of the border wings forms a right angle with the long line of the body; the hinder wings will thereby be exposed and drawn after the fore-wings so far that they will be partly covered by the posterior part of the fore-wings, their hinder portion only being visible. The wings thus stretched out must be fixed firmly and held in position by strips of cardboard laid across them, which should be pinned down to the setting-board. The antenn and the first pair of legs must be directed forward at an acute angle, the other pair of legs directed backwards. The abdomen of the larger species should be supported beneath by layers of paper or cotton wool.
If the upper and under surfaces of the wings are very different in their appearance and markings, there should be duplicate specimens, so that both surfaces may be displayed, as in the case of the beautiful argus ( Polyommatus Argus ): the upper side of the wings of which insect is blue, while the under side has many eyes, and a yellow border.
The butterflies, after they have been displayed on the setting-out board, must be laid aside to dry in a place free from dust, airy and warm, but in the shade. The small ones dry quickly, but large species sometimes take three or four weeks, or even a longer time, before the process is completed. In order to determine whether they are dry, it is only necessary to touch the abdomen with a needle; if the skin is stiff and immovable, it may be concluded that all moisture has evaporated, and that the process of drying is completed.

Argus, upper side.

Argus, under side.
PRESERVATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE COLLECTION.
W E will now suppose that the season is over, and that after much toil in the hot sunshine and in all sorts of weather, and after many successful and happy explorations in field and forest, and much discouragement and failure, you have at last succeeded in getting together a fair sample collection of the insects of your neighbourhood. Naturally, you are anxious to preserve them from being injured or destroyed; and their proper scientific arrangement is equally desirable. You may have already expended some considerable time in unsuccessfully trying to find out the names of your insects; and perhaps you have laid out some money in the purchase of suitable collecting tools and materials for making insect preparations-pins and cork, store-boxes and setting-boards, for moths and butterflies; and glass-stoppered bottles, containing spirits of wine, for beetles, etc.
It frequently happens that a beetle and butterfly collection begun by boys in high spirits, and carried on for awhile with a corresponding amount of energy and success, is ultimately abandoned, because, as it has not been properly prepared, insects have attacked the collection. When this is the case, brown powder accumulates under the bodies of the insects; they are soon dismembered, and heads, limbs, and antenna lie scattered through the cases. There has been no time to attend to the collection. The thoughts of the young collectors have been turned aside from natural history by the more urgent claims of study or business. They have noticed that some beetles are injured, while others have become mouldy, and that everywhere amongst them are signs of decay; and they have ceased to feel any interest in the collections of which they were formerly so proud. It is indeed a thousand pities when this happens. For the study of God s works must always furnish an inexhaustible supply of entertainment and instruction. It must never be forgotten that every beetle, butterfly, or other natural object is really the work of an Infinite and Eternal Being, whose wonderful works we can never fathom, however deeply we may examine them. Each star in the heavens, each flower or animal on the earth, is in reality the product of the hand of God. To study correctly these works of the Creator is the aim of natural history, and certainly there can be no grander or loftier employment. Not only, therefore, whilst young and strong, and capable of climbing the hills and mountains, in school-boy days, whilst free from the cares of business, but in after years, let us keep up our acquaintance with natural history. That our readers may have this pleasure, and may again work at their insects with renewed hope, we shall now give them some hints as to the best means of preserving their accumulated treasures, and also show how to arrange and name them scientifically in the cabinet.
The principal condition for the preservation of insects is the careful and skilful preparation of the specimens. As we have already intimated, the collection often contains the germs of its own destruction from the moment of its origin. The greatest cleanliness of setting-boards and store-boxes, their absolute freedom from worms, and the, perfect dryness of insects, especially such as have been killed in water or spirits, should be made a constant aim. Newcomers from other collections, or suspected inhabitants, should be carefully examined for those small insects which do so much mischief.
Before any scientific arrangement is attempted, boys should make a catalogue of the insects in their collection, as far as their names have become known to them; they will thus obtain a better idea of what they have and what they require, and can thus intelligently supply their own deficiencies. Passing in review the number of genera and species already possessed, they must next proceed to arrange their collection according to some trustworthy text-book, as Stephens British Coleoptera , Westwood s British Butterflies , New-man s British Moths . The number of extra insect-boxes required for the collection to make it complete can thus be determined.
The boxes should be made out of dry wood, perfectly sound, and free from worms; if there are any cracks or openings, they must be closed with wax or putty. The cov