INSECT COLLECTING

Insect collecting is one of my favorite things to do. It is fun doing it, but its not just to have fun, its to study and learn more about them. My favorite group of insects are the butterflies and moths. All of them  really have iridescent brown scales on their wings, but when the light reflects on them, they become the beautiful creatures we see fly around our backyards.

 In this post I wanted to talk a little bit about insect collecting.

This is a link to the kit that I have:

Insect Collecting & Mounting Kit

Step #1. The Net.

 The net is used to catch most of your insects.  Mine is 2' deep and you would want to have one at least this deep...the deeper and wider, the better. When you see one and are about to swing, try and sweep in on it from above. As soon as it is in the net,  quickly either put it on the ground or fold it over. Either way works just fine, although, I fold it.

Step #2. R.I.P.

For this you only need a jar with plaster or a cotton-ball and poison. Just "load" your jar with the poison and drop your bug into his chamber of doom.

Step #3. Preserving

Fold a butterfly or moths wings together and slide into a glassine envelope. It should stay good like that for a surprisingly long time, up to 60 years! Use Vapor tape to preserve pinned and processed insects. 

Step #4. Labeling, pinning and drying.

 Use tweezers to spread wings (if it has any) and slide a pin through its thorax (middle part between head and abdomen). Spread its wings with wax-paper an a board made for this purpose. On one label write the place and date of capture along with capturer's name. On another write latin and common names.

These are some of the butterflies and moths that I have collected and processed.

POST BY ETHAN

Insect Collecting & Mounting Kit

OPERATION HORN-WORM

 We found these two Tobacco Horn-worm moth caterpillars in our garden. They were so huge! We took them inside and started feeding them. Eventually, they started shrinking! We thought we had done something wrong, but really they were just getting ready to make their cocoons.

 These types of caterpillar do not cling to branches like most do to make a cocoon, they burrow! Finally          mine made theirs, so I dug them up and put them in a container.

  I misted them once a day, just to make it easier for them to hatch. They turned from green, yellow and brown, to a dark earthy brown. Then, one morning I noticed that one cocoon

was laying on its side of the container, empty? Then, I noticed something else...

there was a big Tobacco Horn-worm Moth trying to climb up the side of the container!!!  It's tongue was about 5" long! Its wings had still not dried yet so it probably hatched that morning. Some other names for the tobacco Horn-worm moths are Six-Spotted sphinx and Tobacco-Fly. The Sphinx are definitely my favorite moths.

Post by Ethan