In the rearing of butterflies from eggs and in watching them all through their larval stages, we learn a great deal concerning their life and habits, and finally secure perfect specimens for the cabinet. But the glories of the chase and the charm of the country ramble weigh more in the balance with the naturalist, and the story of a captured specimen is often far more interesting than the record of a bred one.Of butterfly nets used in the chase there are many and varied patterns in the market. I made my own and a better balanced one it would be hard to find. Having seen and handled a few in my time, my experience has been that they are mostly too heavy, have too many loose parts, and their weight is badly distributed. Indeed, I saw one lately which felt more like a hammer in one’s hand. I think if you try to get one made after the pattern here described and figured on p. 15, you will not be disappointed with it.

Now, it is one of the avowed purposes of this little book to make the study and collecting of butterflies cost all the time a boy can spare, and little, or, at least, not much in money. The requirements for a ring folding net are 2 yards of steel wire, rather less than 1/8 inch in thickness (cost about threepence); three copper rivets and washers, 3/16 inch by 3/8 inch long (cost one penny); one 1/4-inch iron screw-head bolt and nut (one penny). Cut the wire into two pieces, each 20 inches long, and two pieces 16 inches long. If you can get a tinsmith friend to turn the eyes for you, so much the better; you will thus avoid the most difficult part of the operation, but you would lose some valuable lessons and the satisfaction of having made the whole thing yourself.

The accompanying cut will show you how the eyes are turned and riveted, and how the nut is fixed in the tube which the tinsmith will make for you, and he will also solder the nut in the narrow end for a few coppers. Or you can get him to make the whole concern, as I have done for a friend of mine. I simply gave the tinsmith mine for a pattern, and in a few days he handed me over an exact duplicate, and only charged one shilling and sixpence for it.

Details of Folding-Net.

1, Ring open, about 16 inches diameter; 2, tin tube with nut soldered in at narrow end; 3, net complete, showing wooden handle fitting into tin tube. Detail A shows how eyes are turned; B, larger eye for passing over screw; C, screw soldered in position.

The net itself is easily made. You will need 1-1/2 yards of the best and strongest muslin and a piece of stout twilled cotton, with which to make the hollow binding round the wire for strength. This binding must be at least 2 inches deep, so as to slip off and on the ring easily when you wish to repair the ring or wash the net. Get green muslin if you care for it; I tried green, too, but speedily gave it up, as I found the white net more effective for seeing and handling moths in after dark.

Do not shape the net down to too fine a point; rather make it more of a cup-shape and nearly the depth of your arm. And, lastly, while we are on the subject of the net, always carry a few strips of gum paper with you on an excursion; they are very handy and effective for repairing a damage, say, after contact with a bramble-bush.

Most butterflies are very impatient in the net, and strongly resent their imprisonment, so either double your net over the instant a capture is made, or catch the net by the neck, so to speak, with your left hand, leaving your right free for the pinching process. Pinching must be very carefully done, or your specimen may be spoiled. It can be done only when the wings are closed; you give the insect a sharp nip between your finger and thumb nails, right under the junction of the wings and the body—i.e., on the under side of the thorax, always taking care not to crush or mangle the specimen. Do not attempt to actually kill it; just give a sufficient pinch to stun it; then you may open the net, remove your specimen, and pin it in your collecting box, which should be as nearly air-tight as you can make it, and lined with sheet cork. Place some freshly pounded laurel-leaves secured in a piece of muslin at one end of your box. The fumes given off by the bruised leaves soon kill the insects. Don’t use ammonia for killing butterflies; it alters their colours, and, in fact, ruins some altogether. Cyanide of potassium or laurel-leaves are the best killing agents, and the latter are by far the safest for boys to handle, as cyanide is very poisonous.

PLATE 3.

“Cop” of “120’s” Cotton on Stand, and Setting-Needle for “Paisley” Method of Setting

Specially-made entomological pins can be purchased from all dealers in naturalists’ requisites. Black enamelled pins are the vogue just now, and they last longer than the silvered or gilt ones, and resist “grease” better. Many insects, you should know, have a small, and some a large, amount of oil in their bodies, which gradually makes its presence seen, first in the abdomen, and later it spreads (if not checked) to the wings. The oil, coming in contact with the white or yellow pin, soon corrodes it through; the black enamel resists its action longest. Try to check this “greasing” of your specimens on its first appearance on the body, and if you notice it before it has spread to the wings all may be well. Break the abdomen off at once, and drop it into benzine, where you can let it remain a day or two. Then transfer it to a box of fine dry plaster of Paris for another day or so, and you will be surprised how beautiful and clean it will come out. Another hint: Push a little pin into each body when broken off, and attach a white thread to the pin; now you can do what you like with the body without touching it with your fingers; lastly, replace each body, sticking it in position with a dab of entomological gum, to be had from Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster, 36, Strand, W.C.

Supposing you have arrived home with a few butterflies, and wish to set them. This is best done as soon as possible after they are killed. They may remain unset a few days if kept damp and yet properly aired; you must prevent them from hardening on the one hand, and getting mouldy on the other, through too long and close keeping; so have a watchful eye on them until set.

Setting-boards can be either bought or made. This is a question for each worker to determine for himself. Some collectors may have special facilities for making them, while others may have a profusion of pocket money wherewith to buy them. When I was a boy I made my own. It was a work of necessity. As a lad I had always so many specimens to set in summer-time that it would have been sheer ruination to have bought all the boards required.

On Plate II. you have an illustration of a setting-board, and the photograph is in itself an indication of how butterflies are to be set before being placed in the permanent collection. Note the setting-bristle mounted in a cube of cork. This is used to hold the wing in position while the card braces are being placed. The collector can easily mount a bristle for himself. A cat, badger, or other whisker will serve; do not try to push it through the cube of cork, but glue it between two pieces; by doing so you will save your bristle from being spoiled and make a firmer job.

Keep your old thin postcards, from which to cut braces, and always have a boxful of various sizes handy, and in the same box, in a separate compartment, have an abundance of small, thin pins. Good setting, like other operations, is largely a matter of practice. Be careful not to injure the wings in any way, and place your braces on them so that they will not leave marks. I find a common fault with beginners is that they do not lower the specimen far enough down into the groove of the setting-board, with the result that the wings are bent and deformed by the braces pressing them down. See that the wings of your specimens lie flat and naturally spread out over the surface of the board on either side of the groove.

A setting-needle is sometimes an exceedingly useful tool. A very neat one can be made in a few minutes with a goose quill, a little sealing-wax, and the finest sewing-needle you can secure. Melt the wax and fill one end of the quill for half an inch or so, heat the eye end of the needle until nearly red-hot, and push it into the wax. This tool is very useful for adjusting a wing as occasion demands.

Let your insects remain as long as possible on the boards; they should be left on for a fortnight in warm, dry weather, but longer in the spring and autumn. The wings of imperfectly dried specimens are liable to spring up, or droop.

There is another method of setting Lepidoptera which only requires to be more widely known to quickly supersede the use of braces and bristle. It is sometimes called the “Northern” method, but I prefer to call it the “Paisley,” because it was first used in that town. Its advantages are: Greater speed, less apparatus, less expense, and less liability to damage the specimens. Instead of the usual setting-board, a block is used—that is to say, your setting-boards are cut up into short pieces, in length a little less than the width of the board. Thus, a board 2-1/2 inches wide should be cut into pieces 1-3/4 inches long. As no corked surface is needed these blocks can be made or bought very cheaply; the usual cost, from a joiner, is about two shillings per hundred. The only other requisite is a cop of very fine cotton “120⁸” or even finer if you can get it. This you will be able to obtain from a cotton-spinner or his agent; by-and-by, as this method of setting becomes more widely known the dealers will probably stock a few of these fine cotton-yarn cops.^* Plate III. will show you how to construct a stand for the cop. The rest is easy. Pin your insect in the same way as you would do for braces; place it on the block with wings well down on its surface, holding the block in your left hand. Give your cotton a turn round the extreme edge of the block, then bring it directly above your insect. Now blow the wing on the left side as far forward as you wish it to go, and, while it is held extended by your blowing, bring the cotton down gently across it and there you have it, secured in position. Give two or three extra turns to hold it safe and repeat the operation for the other wing. If the wings should be stiff and refuse to go far enough forward, secure them as far forward as they will blow, with one turn of the cotton only, then gently assist them farther with a setting-needle. When in a satisfactory position, give the few extra turns of the cotton. I can set from sixty to one hundred and twenty insects in an hour by this method.

^*Readers desirous of adopting this most excellent method of setting, and yet experiencing difficulty in getting suitable cotton-yarn, should communicate with the author, Mr. A. M. Stewart, 38, Ferguslie, Paisley.—Editor.

In removing an insect from a block, draw a sharp knife across the back of the block and lift off all the cotton at once. If the body of the specimen being set needs support, as sometimes happens, give the cotton two or three cross turns, and with your setting-needle raise the body on to this as shown on Plate VI. One hint more: See that your lines diverge from near the body at the bottom to near the tip of the wings at the top; the reason for this is that if you have to slip the wing forward under a turn of the thread it will not be damaged if the thread is arranged as indicated, whereas if your thread be laid on, say, from the outer bottom corner in towards the head, it would then scrape the wing, and be sure to remove some of the scales, thus damaging the specimen. The correct method is shown on Plate VI. With ordinary care and usage a good cop should last a year or two.

After your insects are set, by whatever method, they need to be put aside in a dry, airy place to harden, and be secured against the ravages of mice and spiders. For their better protection, it is usual to place them in a “drying case,” which need not be an elaborate affair. My drying case was constructed out of an empty box obtained from the grocer; judging from the legend on the outside it had once contained tins of preserved apples. This is set up on end with the bottom removed and made into cross shelves. Light muslin cloth is tacked on in place of the bottom, so as to admit air but exclude dust. On the front, where the lid was originally nailed, is a hinged frame, covered with the same material, acting as a door. This drying house is not exactly pretty, but it has served its purpose admirably for many years.

A representative of the larva of each species is now considered essential to a complete collection of butterflies, and it is rendered even more perfect if egg-shells and chrysalis cases can also be included.

We now have a fairly easy and reliable process for preserving larvÆ, a process which any aspiring young collector can carry through without much trouble or expense. It is really very simple and costs little. True, one can purchase apparatus specially made for the work for ten, or even five, shillings, but equally good results can be obtained with the expenditure of a few pence and a little ingenuity. I strongly advise young folk to make their own apparatus; by so doing they develop resourcefulness, and a handy youngster is not likely to make a failure of his life.

In the first place you will need a hot-air chamber. Any empty toffee-tin will serve this purpose; one somewhere about 6 inches long by 4 inches in diameter will be a handy size. Get a piece of copper or soft iron wire, such as milliners use; give the wire two or three turns round the tin, twisting it as tightly as you can: then give the two free ends a turn or two round a gas-bracket near the burner, so as to bring your tin, with the open end next you, just over the burner. Or you may mount the tin over a spirit-lamp, in which event you will not be troubled with soot gathering on the outside of your oven. You now have an oven which you can make as hot as you want it by regulating your flame; you will soon discover the right temperature in which to dry a skin quickly without burning it. The skins of small, thin-skinned caterpillars dry very quickly, whilst those of large moths, such as the Oak Eggar, dry more slowly even with more heat.

Your next requirement is a glass blowpipe: this you can purchase at the chemist’s for a copper. Ask for a glass tube about a foot long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. Now, this tubing is made of a very soft and pliable kind of glass, and by heating it over a flame you should have no difficulty in drawing out one end of the tube into a fine point, not too long and not too abrupt; the illustration (Plate VII.) will show you the right length of the point. Hold the end over the gas-jet, keep turning it round, and in a minute it will become red and soft; remove the end of the tube from the flame, grasp it with a pair of forceps, and gently and steadily pull the heated portion until it is drawn to a point of the required length. Nip off the part you caught with the forceps, and your tube is ready. Or another way is to heat the tube in the middle, and pull the two ends apart; this will give you two blowpipes, and you can make a fine point to one for small caterpillars and a wider aperture to the other for large ones. I used to know a friendly chemist who would “point” as many tubes as I wanted at his Bunsen burner in a few minutes. To complete your blowpipe, you will need about 2 inches of a watch-spring—any watch-repairer will give you a broken spring. The photograph on Plate VII. shows how the piece of spring is placed and used; it is bent to the required shape while heated, and bound in position with fine copper wire. The wire I use is the same as that required for mounting dried larva skins; it can be obtained at any shop where electrical appliances are sold; it is an extremely fine wire covered with green silk thread.

Your larva-preserving outfit is completed with a sheet of blotting-paper and an ordinary lead pencil. I will now describe the process.

PLATE 4.
1. Clouded Yellow (Male)
2. Brimstone (Male)
3. Silver-washed Fritillary (Male)
4. Dark-green Fritillary (Male)
5. High Brown Fritillary
6. Queen of Spain Fritillary
7. Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
8. Pearl-bordered Fritillary
9. Greasy Fritillary

There could be no better species to begin with than the caterpillar of the Large Garden White butterfly; get one as nearly full-grown as possible, lay it out on the blotting-pad before you, place the lead pencil across it gently, but firmly, just behind the head, and roll it towards the tail. This kills the larva instantly, and empties out its internal organs by the anal orifice. Roll your pencil over it again to make sure the skin is thoroughly clean inside; then insert your blowpipe into the anal orifice, letting the spring down on the last segment so as to hold the skin on; apply your mouth to the other end of the blowpipe, blow the skin out gently, and insert in the hot-air oven. Keep blowing gently for a few seconds; watch progress; touch the skin with your finger to see if it is getting hard and dry. Don’t blow too hard and make it look like a bursting sausage; try to keep it as natural in appearance as possible. In a few minutes it will be quite hard and dry; when dry, raise the spring, and a slight touch with the thumb-nail will liberate it from the blowpipe. The skin is now ready for mounting on silk-covered wire or a thin dry twig with a little entomological gum or seccotine. Our specimen is now ready to take its place in the collection.

We now have to face the problem of storing the collection. It is probably beyond the means of a young collector to purchase a cabinet with drawers, costing ten shillings per drawer, and he will be well advised to keep his specimens in store-boxes which he may be able to make for himself. I made some very serviceable ones with scented soap-boxes got from our grocer. Any size will do, but it is best to have your boxes all of one size if possible, say 10 inches by 14 inches by 4 inches. Get a few light deal boxes about these dimensions, nail on the lids, paper them all over the outside with good stout brown packing-paper having a glossy surface; paste it on with thin glue; set aside a day or two to dry. When dry, take a sharp saw and cut the boxes round the sides and ends, so that each box is divided into two equal traylike halves. Glue a stout cardboard shell round the inside of one half, and attach the other half by two small brass hinges. The cardboard shell rises above the sides of the tray, and when the other half of the box is folded over it “stays put,” as the Yankee says; and, in addition, you have a fairly air-tight construction. These store-boxes fold after the manner of a book-form chess or draught board. Each half requires to be lined on the inside with sheet cork, which you can get from dealers in entomologists’ sundries, and finally covered with thin white paper. Such a store-box costs less than one and sixpence. Keep two or three boxes for duplicate specimens, and as many for your permanent collection. By-and-by you will want glass-topped cases, but by the time you have arrived at that stage you should have gained sufficient experience to enable you to know where to buy them.

See that every specimen before being transferred to your permanent collection bears with it a small label setting forth the date and place of capture, thus:

Keep these tickets as inconspicuous as possible and with the writing or printing in such a position as to be easily read without requiring to remove the insect.

The following list of British butterflies is thoroughly modern, and in labelling your specimens you should adopt its nomenclature, and also follow the order given in arranging your collection. Both Latin and English names are included, but if you wish to be a thorough entomologist you should accustom yourself to use the scientific names. The Latin name is the same everywhere “from China to Peru.” If you use an English name of a butterfly in writing to a foreign collector he will probably fail to recognize the species referred to, but if you give the scientific name he will know it at once.

The remaining pages of this volume will be devoted to a description of the species mentioned in the foregoing list, together with notes on habits and other points. Assisted by the splendid coloured plates, which are produced from actual specimens, and the notes in the following pages, the young collector should have no difficulty in identifying the specimens he secures.