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Rearing insects One of the easiest ways to obtain insect specimens for collection or study is to raise them (see sections “Cockroach trap”, “Food-baited jars”, “Pheromones” and below). Many college and university biology and entomology departments (see listing in section, “Donations to museums and associated tax benefits”) maintain cultures of arthropods for study and can be contacted or visited. Several companies sell culture supplies and equipment for begin your own cultures. Starting a culture from scratch is easily done for many groups of arthropods (see, FAPFS008, L-1311 - "Raising Crickets for Fish Bait", and L-5313). Sources of Information:
Sources of supplies:
Rearing butterflies and moths. If you happen to find a large, fully-grown caterpillars in the field, keep some in a zip-lock bag with pieces of the plant on which it was feeding. If you’re lucky, it may go ahead and pupate and in a few weeks the adult butterfly or moth may emerge as a perfect specimen! Try collecting bagworm bags in mid summer when caterpillars inside are full grown or have pupated and rearing adult males. Adult butterflies and moths can be placed in a screen cage or bag (paper or plastic) together with leaves on stems of their larval host plants (e.g., black swallowtail on dill, fennel or parsley). This can also be accomplished in the field by tying a sweep net or burlap bag around the branch of a host plant - even a tree. Once the egg is layed, it can be collected and preserved in alcohol, or allowed to hatch. If caterpillars are to be reared, change host plant leaves frequently to prevent accumulation of decomposing plant tissue and fecal material (frass) that will mold readily. Was leaves collected fresh from host plants or kept in a refrigerator to remove dirt, disease organisms that may be present. If adults are intended to emerge from pupae or chrysalides in captivity, assure that humidity levels are high to allow for expansion of wings. Rearing
parasites. When
caterpillars are encountered that are covered with silken cocoons,
holding that specimen in a jar will allow adult parasitic wasps to
emerge that can then be preserved and mounts on pin-mounted card
points. Similarly, a percentage of most populations of insects may
be parasitized and allowing them to remain active in captivity allows
time for parasites to emerge. Collecting scale insect crawlers. Most scale insect females produce eggs that hatch into tiny six-legged mobile stages called crawlers. In many species, male scales are tiny two-winged stages that look like gnats. Both crawlers and, occasionally, males scale insects can be collected by placing cuttings of twigs and leaves infested with scale insects in a sealed plastic bag. Keep the bag at room temperature away from direct sunlight. If crawlers are emerging, they can be seen in the corners of the bag.
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Rearing and culturing insects is a great way to obtain or keep specimens
Butterfly weed is a host to Monarch butterfly caterpillars, milk weed bugs, aphids and mites |
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