Homework #7

Systematics

1. How can you tell butterflies and moths apart?

 One of the easiest ways to tell the difference between a butterfly and a
moth is to look at the antennae. A butterfly’s antennae are club-shaped
with a long shaft and a bulb at the end. A moth’s antennae are feathery or
saw-edged.
 Here are some other ways that help to identify butterflies and moths:
o Wings
 Butterflies tend to fold their wings vertically up over their
backs. Moths tend to hold their wings in a tent-like fashion
that hides the abdomen.
 Butterflies are typically larger and have more colorful
patterns on their wings. Moths are typically smaller with
drab-colored wings.
o Anatomy
 Moths have a frenulum, which is a wing-coupling device.
Butterflies do not have frenulums. Frenulums join the
forewing to the hind wing, so the wings can work in unison
during flight.
o Behavior
 Butterflies are primarily diurnal, flying in the daytime.
Moths are generally nocturnal, flying at night. However,
there are moths that are diurnal, such as the buck moth and
there are butterflies that are crepuscular, that is, flying at
dawn and dusk.
o Cocoon/Chrysalis
 Cocoons and chrysalides are protective coverings for the
pupa. The pupa is the intermediate stage between the larva
and adult. A moth makes a cocoon, which is wrapped in a
silk covering. A butterfly makes a chrysalis, which is hard,
smooth and has no silk covering.

2.  What are the ethical considerations when collecting and preserving

insects?
 Collecting – General
o No more specimens than are strictly required for a specific purpose
should be captured or killed. Remember that even an apparently
common species may be locally vulnerable.

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o Individuals of readily identified species, particularly butterflies, should

not be killed, nor removed from the wild, unless required as voucher
specimens or for scientific or educational study. If they are not needed
for such purposes, they should be examined while alive and then
released near the place of capture.
o If the accumulation of scientific data is not a specific aim,
consideration should be given to photography as an alternative to
collecting, especially for macrolepidoptera.
o Species that do not occur in abundance should not be taken year after
year from the same locality.
o Specimens for exchange or disposal to other entomologists should be
taken sparingly, and preferably not at all.
o Invertebrates should not be collected from the wild for sale or other
commercial purposes, including the manufacture of jewellery, or for
purely ornamental display.
o If specimens are sold from captive-bred stock or from old collections,
they should be accompanied by data, including details of provenance.
o When obtaining early stages by collecting leaf-mines, galls, seed heads
etc., never take all that can be found. Leave as many as possible to
allow the population to survive.
o Do as little damage to the habitat as possible.
o Adequate records, as indicated in article 5.1, should always be kept.
o Collections should be properly housed, so as to prevent deterioration
or damage by pests.
o The future value of every collection should be safeguarded. The
owner's will should provide for the appointment of a scientific
executor, who can offer the collection to a learned society or a
museum.
 Collecting - Rare, local and Endangered Species
o It is illegal to collect certain listed invertebrate species or forms except
under license from the relevant authority. Other taxa listed as being of
'Conservation Concern' should not be collected except with the utmost
restraint. A pair of specimens of any such taxon should be considered
sufficient for a personal collection. Species in greatest danger should
not be collected at all for this purpose. The taking of larger or annually
repeated samples may, however, be justifiable for bona fide scientific

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study, if it can be reasonably expected to have no damaging effects on

the population.
o The collection of rare or local species from sites where they are
already known to occur does not generally provide useful data and
should be avoided, except for the purpose of survey or other scientific
study.
o Newly discovered localities for rare species should be reported to the
appropriate conservation organizations, records centers and organizers
of recording schemes.
 Collecting – trapping
o The catch in a trap should be released after being examined, except for
any specimens that must be killed for voucher purposes or for an
ecological or other scientific study. The release should be made in the
same locality, but away from the immediate trap site. The catch should
preferably be kept in cool shady conditions and then released at dusk.
If this is not possible, it should be released in long grass, or other
cover; not on lawns or other exposed surfaces. Anesthetics are harmful
and should not be used.
o Live trapping, for instance in traps filled with egg-tray material, is
always to be preferred to the killing of the catch.
o Unwanted invertebrates should not be fed to fish, birds or other
animals.
o If a trap used for scientific purposes is found to be catching rare or
local species unnecessarily it should be re-sited.
o Traps and lights should be sited with care so as not to annoy or
confuse other people or to waste police time.
 Collecting - Permissions and Conditions
o Always seek permission from the landowner or occupier before
collecting on private land. Obtain appropriate permit(s) for access
and/or collecting on any site controlled by a conservation body, such
as a county wildlife trust, local authority, the national conservation
agency, Forest Enterprise or National Trust. (Collecting on a Site of
Special Scientific Interest requires permission both from the owner
and from the local office of the appropriate national conservation
agency.)
o Always comply with any conditions laid down by the granting of
access and the permission to collect.

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o Always report your findings to the person who gave you permission, at
least by commenting orally on the ecological requirements of a few
species of interest. Findings from a nature reserve or other important
site should be sent to the appropriate authority in the form of a list of
the species recorded, annotated with habitat data.

3. What are the materials/equipment needed in collecting insects?

Collecting equipment and methods
There are probably as many types of insect collection equipment and techniques as there
are insect groups and entomologists combined. Even the study of one insect may require
multiple tools and techniques to collect and curate. Not all of these tools and methods can
possibly be described here. However, basic collecting, killing, preserving and displaying
methods are described. Given time and the contributions of others, these sections can be
expanded to become more representative of the techniques used by the experts!
 Sources for collection equipment
 Hand picking, tweezers, aspirators, fine brushes and cotton swabs
 Jars and bags (zip-lock sandwich bags, cockroach trap, food-baited jars,
cricket cages, sorting trays)
 Nets (aerial nets, sweep nets, aquatic nets)
 Beating sheets and cards (beating cards, beating cloths and sheets)
 Vacuum devices
 Berlese funnel
 Irritating liquids, flotation samplers, sieves and screen-bottom buckets,
grubbing
 Creating attractive habitats
 Trapping insects (pitfall traps, baited vials, Malaise traps, Epps biting fly trap,
window pane trap)
 Colored objects and sticky traps (yellow pan traps with water)
 Lights (black lights)
 Chemical attractants (carbon dioxide, pheromones, baiting for moths and
beetles)
4. List down techniques to efficiently collect insects.

Before starting an insect collection, one should know how to properly capture,
kill, mount, and label the insect. Not only does it give the collector much
enjoyment owning an insect collection, but also one may learn a lot from studying
the insects in his collection. There are many new species that are discovered by
collecting, since it is hard to identify a specimen just by looking at it. There are

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many techniques used to collect and preserve insects, I will try to fit most of them
into this article. If you do not wish to own an insect collection, but still would like
to learn about the diverse insect world, taking photographs of live insects may be
the better choice for you.

Recommended Collecting Tools and Techniques:

 Funnel net (Butterfly net)--The most common and useful tool, which can be
easily made or purchased inexpensively at many stores. A diagram of a butterfly
net can be seen here.

 A sweep net—Similar to a butterfly net except it has a tougher cloth in place of

netting. It’s used to sweep through weeds without getting torn.
 Aquatic net—Used to collect insects that live in the water.
 The aspirator—Used to draw small insects into a small glass or clear plastic
bottle. The aspirator is simply a small bottle with two hoses inserted through the
stopper in the top. When air is drawn out of the bottle with your mouth through
one of the hoses, the insect is drawn in through the other hose into the bottle.
 Pitfall trap—Buried flush with surface of soil and the insect will fall into trap
and will not be able to escape. The trap may be used with or without bait. Some
baits include fermented fruits, carrion (meat), dung, yeast, fungus, and many
household foods such as dog food and cereal.
 Light traps—Used at night, most effectively used to attract moths but may
attract other insects as well. Some lights commonly used to attract insects are
black lights, mercury-vapor, and ultraviolet. The easiest kind trap to make is
simply a sheet strung between two poles or trees with one of the lights listed
above reflecting upon it.

Butterflies are captured easily while resting, as they are much harder to catch
while in flight. Moths are most commonly collected during night at a light trap. If
you do not have a light trap, moths can be attracted to incandescent lights, such as
your porch light. Specimens of Diptera (flies) are mostly obtained with the
butterfly net, while in flight or resting. Odanata (dragonflies and damselflies) are
swift and live around the water. These are caught while in flight or resting with a
butterfly net. There are many techniques used to collect Coleoptera (beetles).
Pitfall traps are one of the best ways to capture beetles, but they can be obtained
by using a sweep net through thick weeds, swishing an aquatic net through a
creek or pond, attracted to one of the light traps mentioned above, or just by
netting them with a butterfly net. Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and

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katydids) can be collected with a sweep net or butterfly net. Hymenoptera (ants,

bees, wasps, and sawflies) are mostly captured by using a butterfly
net. Himiptera (true bugs, cicadas, and hoppers) are easily caught with a sweep
net or butterfly net.

5. Explain how to properly mount preserved insects.

Mounting Specimens
Frozen insects must be thoroughly thawed or appendages may break off. Insects must be
soft enough to pin, either freshly caught and killed or softened in a relaxing box.
Allowing them to air dry for a bit will also help to prevent condensation. The larger
insects can be spread out to make the legs and other appendages easy to see and
photograph.
Relaxing insects before mounting
To relax an insect, you can place 3 sheets of paper towels (or cardboard) moistened with
vinegar in the bottom of a large Tupperware. Then place the bugs in their vials on top of
the cardboard and put the lid on but not tightly. If you’re working with large collections
and have sorted the insects into petri dishes, place an overturned petri dish on the bottom
and set the one with insects on top. Leave them for at least 4 hours. With the vinegar, you
may leave it for the 2 days without worry of fungus.

The cardboard has been wet down with vinegar.

Open the pill bottles of frozen insects and set into container.

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Snap 3 sides of the lid on. Keep one side loose so condensation doesn’t build up. After
they are relaxed, take them out of the vials and arrange their legs, antennae, etc. as
needed and if needed.  To do this, you may use a piece of Styrofoam that is covered with
a piece of muslin. The Styrofoam allows you to use pins to arrange them; the muslin
keeps them from “jumping” around because of static electricity. It’s best to pin them in a
natural arrangement of legs, wings, antennae, before they dry. Long-bodied and long-
legged insects can have their legs kept in place by pushing a piece of stiff paper up on the
pin beneath them until they are dry. Any exuviae or puparia should be kept with the
adults in a collection and can be mounted on the same pin.
6. Describe how to properly pin and label preserved insects.
Pinning
 Pinning is used for directly pinning medium to large insects and for pinning
points that hold the small insects.
 Pins range in size from 000 to 7, with 7 being the largest. Pins need to be stainless
steel.
 Insects that are at least 5mm are large enough to pin using 0-000.
 Medium to large insects are pinned on sizes 1-3.
 Large specimens (moths, beetles, cicadas) use sizes 4-7.
 Use the pinning guide below to pin in the appropriate places

a) Coleoptera, b) Orthoptera, c) Diptera, d) Lepidoptera, e) Hymenoptera, f) Neuroptera,

g) Odonata, h) Hemiptera

Labelling
One can have several labels but the minimum is two types of labels that are pinned with
each specimen: 1) Locale label and 2) Specimen ID label. I have opted for the 2-label
system but I have the flexibility of an optional third label.

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The following is the minimum information that is required. I have hyperlinked an

example of the locale and specimen labels.
Locale Label – must include the following
 Location in descending order from country, state, county, city, township.
 GPS coordinates and elevation, if known
 Name of location, if there is one assigned to it. EX: Yellowstone National Park
 Date (written as DD MMM YYYY, 08 Nov 2013)
 Collector’s name
 Type of habitat and/or method of collection

Specimen label
 Order, Family
 Genus and species
 Name of the person who made the ID
 BugGuide number, if this was posted on BugGuide
Optional label
This would have interesting information about the insect and could include:
 Plant it was on (always use the botanical name)
 Time of day
 Weather conditions
 The activity of the insect – resting, eating, clustered, individual, mating, etc.

These labels are placed in a specific order and height; pinning blocks make this very
simple. The insect is at 1 1/8”; the locale label at ¾”; and the specimen label at ½”.  The
font is generally 4pt. There aren’t a lot of rules about this unless you are at an institution
with a required protocol.
It is important to print these on acid-free cardstock. Sometimes thesis-weight paper
will curl up and as specimens get moved around, the labels can twist and turn. This
twirling action has been known to damage specimens by clipping off their legs. The
cardstock does double duty by reducing the label spinning.
Adding various spacing on the label allows for the pin to be placed without
obliterating the information. Another excellent suggestion from Andrew Williams is to
include a specimen number on the backside of all the labels for a single specimen. I also
include this on the front in the lower right-hand corner and do this because I seldom have
the ID for the specimen at the time I’m making the label. Having the number on the front
helps me to quickly find this specimen and add the specimen ID label without having to
move a number of specimens, risking damage to them. The specimen number correlates

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to your spreadsheet listing of your specimens. The specimen number will prevent labels
from getting mixed up when 2 specimens are examined at the same time.
Specimens in Vials
Specimens in vials have a slightly different method for their labels. The following
information is from Dave Ruiter who ID’d caddisflies for me.
If the specimen is in a vial of alcohol, the font size on both of these labels should
be 8pt Arial font. The two labels need to be placed back to back (with the text of each
facing outward) and placed inside the vial.
You may use a piece of heavy bond cotton paper for the label that is longer than
the vial circumference.  Then grab the end of the label in your forceps and roll the label
loosely around the forceps so the roll is a smaller diameter than the vial opening.  Stick
the label in vial and open the forceps. The label will unwind and “stick” to the vial sides. 
Don’t wrap too tight or it won’t unwrap easily.  The idea is to curve the label so it
matches the curve of the vial.  It unwraps easier when the vial is full of preservative.
2-dram vial labels should be 3/8” x 2 3/8” (6mm x 57mm).

References:
https://driftlessprairies.org/resources/collecting-mounting-preserving-insects/
https://www.discoverlife.org/png/collecting_insects.pdf
https://bugguide.net/node/view/36900
https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/how-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-
a-butterfly-and-a-moth/
https://bughunter.tamu.edu/collection/collectionequipment/
https://arachnoboards.com/threads/ethics-involved-with-collecting-insects.280675/
https://www.amentsoc.org/publications/online/collecting-code.html

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