Collecting Insects
This USDA manual provides a summary of the methods and techniques used by
professionals and amateurs alike to collect and preserve specimens for study.
While many of the methods covered here, such as pinning, have changed very
little in the last hundred years, other techniques have become available only in
the last few years or decades with advancing technologies.A sifter is used to
collect insects and mites. Sifters are especially useful for
winter collecting to pick up hibernating specimens. Almost any
container with a wire-mesh screen bottom will serve as a sifter.
The size of the mesh depends on the size of the specimens
sought. For general purposes, screening with 2.5-3 meshes per
centimeter is satisfactory. A similar method is used chiefly to
collect mites from foliage using a sifter of 20-mesh screen
(about 8 per centimeter) with a funnel underneath.
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