The Butterfly Book Part 4

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 66.--Detail drawing of front of box: _t_, top; _b_, bottom; _e_, side; _f_, strip, nailed around inside as at _n_; _c_, cork; _p_, paper lining.]

_Boxes._--Boxes for the preservation of specimens are made with a tongue on the edges of the bottom fitting into a groove upon the lid, or they may be made with inside pieces fastened around the inner edge of the bottom and projecting so as to catch the lid. The accompanying outlines show the method of joining different forms of boxes (Figs. 65-67). The bottom of the box should be lined with some substance which will enable the specimens to be pinned into it securely. For this purpose sheet-cork about a quarter of an inch thick is to be preferred to all other substances. Ground cork pressed into layers and covered with white paper is manufactured for the purpose of lining boxes. Turf compressed into sheets about half an inch thick and covered with paper is used by many European collectors. Sheets of aloe-pith or of the wood of the yucca, half an inch thick, are used, and the pith of corn-stalks (Indian corn or maize) may also be employed, laid into the box and glued neatly to the bottom. The corn-pith should be cut into pieces about half an inch square and joined together neatly, covering it with thin white paper after the surface has been made quite even and true. Cork is, however, the best material, for, though more expensive than the other things named, it has greater power to hold the pins, and unless these are securely fixed and held in place great damage is sure to result. A loose specimen in a box will work incalculable damage. Boxes should be made of light, thoroughly seasoned wood, and should be very tight. They are sometimes made so that specimens may be pinned both upon the top and the bottom, but this is not to be commended. The depth of the box should be sufficient to admit of the use of the longest insect-pin in use, and a depth between top and bottom of two and a quarter inches is therefore sufficient. Boxes are sometimes made with backs in imitation of books, and a collection arranged in such boxes presents an attractive external appearance. A very good box is made for the United States Department of Agriculture and for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (Fig. 68). This box is thirteen inches long, nine inches wide, and three inches thick (external measurement). The depth between the bottom and the lid on the inside is two and one eighth inches. The ends and sides are dovetailed; the top and bottom are each made of two pieces of light stuff, about one eighth of an inch thick, glued together in such a way that the grain of the two pieces crosses at right angles, and all cracking and warping are thus prevented. The lids are secured to the bottoms by bra.s.s hooks fitting into eyelets. Such boxes provided with cork do not cost more than fifty-five cents apiece when bought in quant.i.ties. Boxes may be made of stout pasteboard about one eighth or three sixteenths of an inch thick, with a rabbet-tongue on the inside. Such boxes are much used in France and England, and when well and substantially made are most excellent. They may be obtained for about thirty-five cents apiece lined with compressed cork.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 67.--Detail drawing of box, in which the tongue, _z_, is made of strips of zinc let into a groove and fastened as at _n_; _g_, groove to catch tongue; _s_, _s_, top and bottom; _c_, cork.]

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 68.--Insect-box for preservation of collections.]

_Cabinets and Drawers._--Large collections which are intended to be frequently consulted are best preserved in cabinets fitted with gla.s.s-covered drawers. A great deal of variety exists in the plans which are adopted for the display of specimens in cabinets. Much depends upon the taste and the financial ability of the collector. Large sums of money may be expended upon cabinets, but the main thing is to secure the specimens from dust, mould, and insect pests. The point to be observed most carefully is so to arrange the drawers that they are, like the boxes, practically air-tight. The writer employs as the standard size for the drawers in his own collection and in the Carnegie Museum a drawer which is twenty-two inches long, sixteen inches wide, and two inches deep (inside measurement). The outside dimensions are: length, twenty-three inches exclusive of face; breadth, seventeen inches; height, two and three eighths inches. The covers are glazed with double-strength gla.s.s. They are held upon the bottoms by a rabbet placed inside of the bottom and nearly reaching the lower surface of the gla.s.s on the cover when closed. The drawers are lined upon the bottom with cork five sixteenths of an inch thick, and are papered on the bottom and sides with good linen paper, which does not easily become discolored.

Each drawer is faced with cherry and has a k.n.o.b. These drawers are arranged in cabinets built in sections for convenience in handling. The two lower sections each contain thirty drawers, the upper section nine.

The drawers are arranged in three perpendicular series and are made interchangeable, so that any drawer will fit into any place in any one of the cabinets. This is very necessary, as it admits of the easy rearrangement of collections. On the sides of each drawer a pocket is cut on the inner surface, which communicates through an opening in the rabbet with the interior. The paper lining the inside is perforated over this opening with a number of small holes. The pocket is kept filled with naphthaline crystals, the fumes of which pa.s.s into the interior and tend to keep away pests. The accompanying figure gives the details of construction (Fig. 69). Such drawers can be made at a cost of about $3.50 apiece, and the cost of a cabinet finished and supplied with them is about $325, made of cherry, finished in imitation of mahogany.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 69.--Detail drawing of drawer for cabinet: _e_, _e_, ends; _b_, bottom; _c_, cork; _p_, _p_, paper strips in corners of lid to exclude dust; _g_, _g_, gla.s.s of cover, held in place by top strips, _s_, _s_; _m_, _m_, side pieces serving as rabbets on inside; _po_, pocket in ends and sides, sawn out of the wood; _x_, opening through the rabbet into this pocket; _y_, holes through the paper lining, _p^1_, allowing fumes of naphthaline to enter interior of drawer; _f_, front; _k_, k.n.o.b; _o_, lunette cut in edge of the top piece to enable the lid to be raised by inserting the fingers.]

Some persons prefer to have the bottoms as well as the tops of the drawers in their cabinets made of gla.s.s. In such cases the specimens are pinned upon narrow strips of wood covered with cork, securely fastened across the inside of the drawers. This arrangement enables the under side of specimens to be examined and compared with as much freedom as the upper side, and without removing them from the drawers; but the strips are liable at times to become loosened, and when this happens great havoc is wrought among the specimens if the drawer is moved carelessly. Besides, there is more danger of breakage.

Another way of providing a cheap and very sightly lining for the bottom of an insect-box is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 70. A frame of wood like a slate-frame is provided, and on both sides paper is stretched. To stretch the paper it ought to be soaked in water before pasting to the frame; then when it dries it is as tight and smooth as a drum-head.

The beginner who has not a long purse will do well to preserve his collections in boxes such as have been described. They can be obtained quite cheaply and are most excellent. Cabinets are more or less of a luxury for the amateur, and are only a necessity in the case of great collections which are constantly being consulted. The boxes may be arranged upon shelves. Some of the largest and best collections in the world are preserved in boxes, notably those of the United States National Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 70.--_A_, _A_, side and bottom of box; _B_, frame fitting into box; _C_, s.p.a.ce which must be left between frame and bottom of box; _P_, _P_, paper stretched on frame.]

_Labeling._--Each specimen should have on the pin below the specimen a small label giving the date of capture, if known, and the locality.

Below this should be a label of larger size, giving its scientific name, if ascertained, and the s.e.x. Labels should be neat and uniform in size.

A good size for labels for large species is about one inch long and five eighths of an inch wide. The labels should be written in a fine but legible hand. Smaller labels may be used for smaller species. A crow-quill pen and India ink are to be preferred in writing labels.

_Arrangement of Specimens._--Specimens are best arranged in rows. The males should be pinned in first in the series, after them the females.

Varieties should follow the species. After these should be placed any aberrations or monstrosities which the collector may possess. The name of the genus should precede all the species contained in the collection, and after each species the specific name should be placed =Fig. 71= shows the manner of arrangement.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 71.--Manner of arranging specimens in cabinet.]

_Insect Pests._--In order to preserve collections, great care must be taken to exclude the various forms of insect pests, which are likely, unless destroyed and kept from attacking the specimens, to ruin them utterly in comparatively a short time. The pests which are most to be feared are beetles belonging to the genera _Dermestes_ and _Anthrenus_.

In addition to these beetles, which commit their ravages in the larval stage, moths and mites prey upon collections. Moths are very infrequently, however, found in collections of insects, and in a long experience the writer has known only one or two instances in which any damage was inflicted upon specimens by the larvae of moths. Mites are much more to be dreaded.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 72.--Naphthaline cone.]

In order to prevent the ravages of insects, all specimens, before putting them away into the boxes or drawers of the cabinet in which they are to be preserved, should be placed in a tight box in which chloroform, or, better, carbon bisulphide, in a small pan is put, and they should be left here for at least twenty-four hours, until it is certain that all life is extinct. Then they should be transferred to the tight boxes or drawers in which they are to be kept. The presence of insect pests in a collection is generally first indicated by fine dust under the specimen, this dust being the excrement of the larva which is committing depredations upon the specimen. In case the presence of the larva is detected, a liberal dose of chloroform should at once be administered to the box or tray in which the specimen is contained. The specimen itself ought to be removed, and may be dipped into benzine.

Naphthaline crystals or camphor is generally employed to keep out insect pests from boxes. They are very useful to deter the entrance of pests, but when they have once been introduced into a collection neither naphthaline nor camphor will kill them. Naphthaline is prepared in the form of cones attached to a pin, and these cones may be placed in one corner of the box. They are made by Blake & Co. of Philadelphia, and are in vogue among entomologists. However, a good subst.i.tute for the cones may very easily be made by taking the ordinary moth-b.a.l.l.s which are sold everywhere. By heating a pin red-hot in the flame of an alcohol-lamp it may be thrust into the moth-ball; as it enters it melts the naphthaline, which immediately afterward cools and holds the pin securely fixed in the moth-ball. In attaching these pins to moth-b.a.l.l.s, hold the pin securely in a forceps while heating it in the flame of the lamp, and thrust the red-hot pin into the center of the ball. Naphthaline crystals and camphor may be secured in the corner of the box by tying up a quant.i.ty of them in a small piece of netting and pinning the little bag thus made in the corner of the tray. By following these directions insect pests may be kept out of collections. It is proper to observe that while carbon bisulphide is more useful even than chloroform in killing pests, and is also cheaper, it should be used with great care, because when mixed with atmospheric air it is highly explosive, and its use should never take place where there are lamps burning or where there is fire. Besides, its odor is extremely unpleasant, unless it has been washed in mercury.

_Greasy Specimens._--Specimens occasionally become greasy. When this happens they may be cleansed by pinning them down on a piece of cork secured to the bottom of a closed vessel, and gently filling it with benzine, refined gasoline, or ether. After leaving them long enough to remove all the grease they may be taken out of the bath and allowed to dry in a place where there is no dust. This operation should not take place near a lighted lamp or a fire.

_Mould._--When specimens have become mouldy or mildewed it is best to burn them up if they can be spared. If not, after they have been thoroughly dried remove the mould with a sable or camel's-hair pencil which has been rubbed in carbolic acid (crystals liquefied by heat).

Mildew in a cabinet is hard to eradicate, and heat, even to burning, is about the only cure, except the mild use of carbolic acid in the way suggested.

_Repairing Specimens._--Torn and ragged specimens are to be preferred to none at all. "The half of a loaf is better than no bread." Until the torn specimen can be replaced by a better, it is always well to retain it in a collection. But it is sometimes possible to repair torn specimens in such a way as to make them more presentable. If an antenna, for instance, has been broken off, it may be replaced neatly, so that only a microscopic examination will disclose the fact that it was once away from the place where it belonged. If a wing has been slit, the rent may be mended so neatly that only a very careful observer can detect the fact. If a piece has been torn out of a wing, it may be replaced by the corresponding portion of the wing of another specimen of the same s.e.x of the same species in such a way as almost to defy detection. The prime requisites for this work are patience, a steady hand, a good eye, a great deal of "gumption," a few setting-needles, a jeweler's forceps, and a little sh.e.l.lac dissolved in alcohol. The sh.e.l.lac used in replacing a missing antenna should be of a thickish consistency; in repairing wings it should be well thinned down with alcohol. In handling broken antennae it is best to use a fine sable pencil, which may be moistened very lightly by applying it to the tip of the tongue. With this it is possible to pick up a loose antenna and place it wherever it is desired.

Apply the sh.e.l.lac to the torn edges of a broken wing with great delicacy of touch and in very small quant.i.ty. Avoid putting on the adhesive material in "gobs and slathers." Repairing is a fine art, which is only learned after some patient experimentation, and is only to be practised when absolutely necessary. The habit of some dealers of patching up broken specimens with parts taken from other species is highly to be reprobated. Such specimens are more or less caricatures of the real thing, and no truly scientific man will admit such scarecrows into his collection, except under dire compulsion.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 73.--b.u.t.terflies pinned into a box overlapping one another, or "s.h.i.+ngled."]

_Packing and Forwarding Specimens._--It often becomes necessary to forward specimens from one place to another. If it is intended to s.h.i.+p specimens which have been mounted upon pins they should be securely pinned in a box lined with cork. A great many expanded specimens may be pinned in a box by resorting to the method known as "s.h.i.+ngling," which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 73. By causing the wings of specimens to overlap, as is shown in the figure, a great many can be accommodated in a small s.p.a.ce. When the specimens have been packed the box should be securely closed, its edges shut with paper, after some drops of chloroform have been poured into the box, and then this box should be placed in an outer box containing excelsior, hay, cotton, or loose shavings in sufficient abundance to prevent the jarring of the inner box and consequent breakage. Where specimens are forwarded in envelopes, having been collected in the field, and are not pinned, the precaution of surrounding them with packing such as has been described is not necessary, but the box in which they are s.h.i.+pped should always be strong enough to resist breakage. Things forwarded by mail or by express always receive rough treatment, and the writer has lost many fine specimens which have been forwarded to him because the s.h.i.+pper was careless in packing.

_Pins._--In the preceding pages frequent reference has been made to insect-pins. These are pins which are made longer and thinner than is the case with ordinary pins, and are therefore adaptable to the special use to which they are put. There are a number of makers whose pins have come into vogue. What are known as Karlsbader and Klager pins, made in Germany, are the most widely used. They are made of ordinary pin-metal in various sizes. The Karlsbader pins have very fine points, but, owing to the fineness of the points and the softness of the metal, they are very apt to buckle, or turn up at the points. The Klager pins are not exposed to the same objection, as the points are not quite so fine. The best pins, however, which are now made are those which have recently been introduced by Messrs. Kirby, Beard, & Co. of England. They are made of soft steel, lacquered, possessing very great strength and considerable flexibility. The finest-sized pin of this make has as much strength as the largest pin of the other makes that have been mentioned, and the writer has never known them to buckle at the tip, even when pinned through the hardest insect tissues. While these pins are a little more expensive than others, the writer does not fail to give them an unqualified preference.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 74.--b.u.t.terfly-forceps, half-size.]

_The Forceps._--An instrument which is almost indispensable to the student of entomology is the forceps. There are many forms of forceps, and it is not necessary to speak at length in reference to the various shapes; but for the use of the student of b.u.t.terflies the forceps made by the firm of Blake & Co. of Philadelphia is to be preferred to all others. The head of this firm is himself a famous entomologist, and he has given us in the forceps which is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 74 an instrument which comes as near perfection as the art of the maker of instruments can produce. The small forceps represented in Fig. 75 is very useful in pinning small specimens. In handling mounted specimens it is well always to take hold of the pin below the specimen with the forceps, and insert it into the cork by the pressure of the forceps. If the attempt is made to pin down a specimen with the naked fingers holding the pin by the head, the finger is apt to slip and the specimen to be ruined.

[Ill.u.s.tration FIG. 75.--Insect-forceps.]

IMMORTALITY

A b.u.t.terfly basked on a baby's grave, Where a lily had chanced to grow: "Why art thou here with thy gaudy dye, When she of the blue and sparkling eye Must sleep in the churchyard low?"

Then it lightly soared thro' the sunny air, And spoke from its s.h.i.+ning track: "I was a worm till I won my wings, And she, whom thou mourn'st, like a seraph sings; Would'st thou call the blest one back?"

SIGOURNEY.

CHAPTER III

THE CLa.s.sIFICATION OF b.u.t.tERFLIES

"Winged flowers, or flying gems."

MOORE.

At the base of all truly scientific knowledge lies the principle of order. There have been some who have gone so far as to say that science is merely the orderly arrangement of facts. While such a definition is defective, it is nevertheless true that no real knowledge of any branch of science is attained until its relations.h.i.+p to other branches of human knowledge is learned, and until a cla.s.sification of the facts of which it treats has been made. When a science treats of things, it is necessary that these things should become the subject of investigation, until at last their relation to one another, and the whole cla.s.s of things to which they belong, has been discovered. Men who devote themselves to the discovery of the relation of things and to their orderly cla.s.sification are known as systematists.

The great leader in this work was the immortal Linnaeus, the "Father of Natural History," as he has been called. Upon the foundation laid by him in his work ent.i.tled "Systema Naturae," or "The System of Nature," all who have followed after him have labored, and the result has been the rise of the great modern sciences of botany and zoology, which treat respectively of the vegetable and animal kingdoms.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI | | | | Reproduced with the kind permission of Dr. S.H. Scudder, from| | "The b.u.t.terflies of New England," vol. iii, Plate 85. | | | | CHRYSALIDS IN COLOR AND IN OUTLINE--PAPILIONINae AND | | HESPERIIDae | | | | 1. _Papilio turnus._ | | 2. _Papilio turnus._ Dorsal view. | | 3. _Papilio turnus._ | | 4. _Papilio turnus._ | | 5. _Papilio troilus._ Dorsal view. | | 6. _Papilio troilus._ | | 7. _Papilio troilus._ | | 8. _Papilio cresphontes._ | | 9. _Papilio cresphontes._ Dorsal view. | | 10. _Papilio cresphontes._ | | 11. _Papilio ajax._ | | 12. _Papilio ajax._ Dorsal view. | | 13. _Papilio asterias._ | | 14. _Papilio philenor._ Dorsal view. | | 15. _Papilio philenor._ Dorsal view. | | 16. _Papilio philenor._ | | 17. _Papilio philenor._ | | 18. _Papilio asterias._ Dorsal view. | | 19. _Papilio asterias._ | | 20. _Papilio philenor._ | | 21. _Achalarus lycidas._ | | 22. _Epargyreus t.i.tyrus._ | | 23. _Eudamus proteus._ From the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 24. _Thorybes bathyllus._ From the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 25. _Epargyreus t.i.tyrus._ | | 26. _Epargyreus t.i.tyrus._ | | 27. _Thanaos icelus._ | | 28. _Thorybes pylades._ | | 29. _Pholisora catullus._ From the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 30. _Thanaos lucilius._ | | 31. _Thanaos lucilius._ Dorsal view. | | 32. _Thanaos lucilius._ | | 33. _Thanaos juvenalis._ | | 34. _Thanaos persius._ | | 35. _Hesperia montivaga._ From the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 36. _Pholisora catullus._ | | 37. _Thanaos martialis._ From the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 38. _Thanaos brizo._ From the original | | by Abbot in Dr. Boisduval's library. | | 39. _Hylephila phyloeus._ From the original | | by Abbot in Dr. Boisduval's library. | | 40. _Amblyscirtes vialis._ | | 41. _Pholisora catullus._ | | 42. _Thymelicus oetna._ From the original | | by Abbot in Dr. Boisduval's library. | | 43. _Atalopedes huron._ | | 44. _Limoch.o.r.es taumas._ | | 45. _Amblyscirtes samoset._ After the original | | by Abbot in the British Museum. | | 46. _Lerema accius._ After the original by | | Abbot in Boston Society of Natural History. | | 47. _Atalopedes huron._ | | 48. _Calpodes ethlius._ | | | | [Ill.u.s.tration PLATE VI.] | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

_The Place of b.u.t.terflies in the Animal Kingdom._--The animal kingdom, for purposes of cla.s.sification, has been subdivided into various groups known as subkingdoms. One of these subkingdoms contains those animals which, being without vertebrae, or an internal skeleton, have an external skeleton, composed of a series of h.o.r.n.y rings, attached to which are various organs. This subkingdom is known by naturalists under the name of the _Arthropoda._ The word _Arthropoda_ is derived from the Greek language and is compounded of two words, (_a?????_), meaning a _joint_ and (_p???_), meaning a _foot_. The _Arthropoda_ seem at first sight to be made up of jointed rings and feet; hence the name.

The subkingdom of the _Arthropoda_ is again subdivided into six cla.s.ses.

These are the following:

Cla.s.s I. The _Crustacea_ (Shrimps, Crabs, Water-fleas, etc.).

Cla.s.s II. The _Podostomata_ (King-crabs, Trilobites [fossil], etc.).

Cla.s.s III. The _Malacopoda_ (_Peripatus_, a curious genus of worm-like creatures, found in the tropics, and allied to the Myriapods in some important respects).

Cla.s.s IV. The _Myriapoda_ (Centipedes, etc.).

Cla.s.s V. The _Arachnida_ (Spiders, Mites, etc.).