British Butterfiles Part 4

He, therefore, is naturally most anxious that those friends should be led to share his own conviction, that the pursuit of entomology--the needful b.u.t.terfly killing and all included--may be not only not cruel, but actually beneficent in theory and practice.

So I will briefly try to act as apologist for the "brotherhood of the net,"

myself included.

In the first place, I will state roundly my sincere belief that _insects cannot feel pain_. This is no special pleading, or "making the wish the father to the thought," {51} but a conviction founded on an ample ma.s.s of evidence, on my own observations and experiments, and strengthened by a.n.a.logical reasoning. I wish I had s.p.a.ce to lay this evidence in full before the reader; but this being here impracticable, I will not damage the argument by taking a few links out of a chain of facts which depend on their close connexion with each other for their strength and value.

There is, however, one fact which may be taken by itself, and goes a long way in our favour, that I must mention here.

Insects, when mutilated in a way that would cause excessive pain and speedy death to vertebrate animals, afterwards perform all the functions of life--eating, drinking, &c. with the same evident _gusto_ and power of enjoyment as before. Plenty of striking instances of this are on record, and, as an example, I have seen a wasp that had been snipped in two, afterwards regale himself with avidity upon some red syrup, which, as he imbibed, gathered into a large ruby bead just behind the wings (where the stomach should have been); but really the creature's pleasure seemed to be only augmented by the change in his anatomy, because he could drink ten times his ordinary fill of sweets, without, of course, getting any the fuller. I could almost fancy a scientific epicure envying the insect his ever fresh appet.i.te and gastronomic capabilities.

After all that can be said on this subject, there will still probably be misgivings in the mind of many, both {52} as to the question of insect feelings and also as to our right to shorten their existence, even by a painless death.

As to the first point, we have now the means of giving any insect an utterly painless quietus, be it capable of feeling pain or no.

In regard to the second, I think few will deny that man enjoys a vested right to make use of any of the inferior animals, even to the taking of their life, if the so doing ministers to his own well-being or pleasure, and practically every one a.s.sumes this right in one way or another. Game animals are shot down (and they a.s.suredly _do_ feel pain), not as necessaries of life, but confessedly as luxuries. Fish are hooked, crabs, lobsters, shrimps perish by thousands, victims to our fancies.

Unscrupulously we destroy every insect whose presence displeases us, harmless as they may be to our own persons. The _aphides_ on our flowers, the moths in our furs, the "beetles" in our kitchens--all die by thousands at our pleasure. Then, if all this be right, are we not also justified in appropriating a little b.u.t.terfly life to ourselves, and does not the mental feast that their after-death beauty affords us at least furnish an equal excuse for their sacrifice with any that can be urged in favour of any animal slaughter, just to tickle the palate or minister to our grosser appet.i.tes? To this query there can be, I think, but one fair answer, so we may return with a better face to the question, "How to kill a b.u.t.terfly."

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIII.]

{53}

I have alluded above to a painless mode of doing so, doubtless applicable to all insects. I know it answers admirably with the large moths, so tenacious of life under other circ.u.mstances. This potent agent is _chloroform_, whose pain-quelling properties are so well known as regards the human const.i.tution.

There is a little apparatus[8] constructed for carrying this fluid safely to the field, and letting out a drop at a time into the box with the captured insect, taking care that the drop does not go on to the insect. Or a wide-mouthed bottle may be used, having at the bottom a pad of blotting-paper, or some absorbent substance, on which a few drops of chloroform may now and then be dropped. The insect being slipped into this, and the stopper or hand being placed over the bottle's mouth, insensibility (in the insect) follows immediately, and in a few minutes, at most, it is completely lifeless.

But the usual and quickest mode of despatch is by _a quick nip between the finger and thumb applied just under the wings_, causing, for the most part, _instantaneous death_: and this can be done through the net, when the {54} inclosed b.u.t.terfly shuts his wings, as he usually does when the net wraps round him.

Now take one of your thin pins, and pa.s.s it through the thorax of the b.u.t.terfly, while open or shut, and put it into the corked lining of your pocket-box. So secured, the b.u.t.terfly will travel uninjured till you reach home; but a heap of dead b.u.t.terflies in a box together will, in the course of a long walk, so jostle together, as to entirely destroy each other's beauty, rubbing off all their painted scales, when, of course, they are as b.u.t.terflies no longer.

When you get home, take out all the pins, excepting such as may be stuck _perpendicularly_ through the _middle of the thorax_, and as soon as possible proceed to "set" your captures.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Preparatory to this, some articles called _setting-boards_ must be provided. A section of one of these is shown in the accompanying cut; but in reality they are made much longer, so as to accommodate a column of half-a-dozen b.u.t.terflies or more: the breadth may vary, {55} according to the width of the b.u.t.terflies that are to be set thereon.

The bottom is usually a thin slip of deal, on which are glued two strips of cork, bevelled off towards the edges, with a slightly curved face.

Sometimes, however, the whole board is made of soft pine, with a groove planed down the middle, and with care will answer pretty well; but the corked board is far preferable.

The mode of "setting" the insect with card "braces" transfixed with pins, which retain the wings in their proper position, will be also readily seen by reference to the figure.

A great point in "setting" is to take care that all the wings are symmetrically arranged, or diverging from the body at equal angles on each side. Let the _antennae_ also be carefully preserved, as on their integrity much of the specimen's value depends.

It will be needless to say that any handling of the _wings_ is to be avoided, as a touch will sometimes destroy their bloom.

The setting-board, when filled, should be put away into a secure, dust-proof, and dry place; and in a few days, more or less, according to the dryness or otherwise of the atmosphere, the b.u.t.terflies will have dried and set in their positions, and are then ready for transference to the store-box or cabinet.

The choice of this receptacle is a serious question for the beginner, who is often in want of a guide to the judicious expenditure of his money, if money he means {56} to spend in this pursuit. To preserve insects, it is _not_ absolutely necessary to have either a cabinet or the regularly-made store-boxes; for, with a little contrivance, any close-shutting, shallow box may be extemporized into a store-box. The bottom may either be lined with sheet-cork (such as is used by shoemakers)--which, however, is a rather dear commodity--or common wine-corks may be sliced up, and cut into little square patches that may be attached in straight rows to the bottom of the box with strong gum or other cement. The first specimens, the nucleus of the future great collection, can be kept here well enough, till a real cabinet can be compa.s.sed.

A cabinet, however, need not be bought all at once; it may be arranged to grow with the collection--and, it may be, with the collector too--by having one or two drawers made at a time; till, in course of time, a sufficient number is obtained, when the whole may be fitted into a case at a small additional expense, and then there is a first-rate cabinet complete; for, to make this plan really advantageous, the drawers should be well made and of good material. Of course, all the drawers must be made to the same "gauge," to insure perfect fitting when the cabinet is made up.

These drawers may be made by any clever joiner, but as their construction is peculiar, and not easily described, it is necessary, either that the maker should be accustomed to this speciality, or that he be furnished with a pattern, either by buying a single drawer at a dealer's, {57} where that can be done, by borrowing one out of a friend's cabinet, or by making therefrom a good working drawing (in section, &c.).

The gla.s.ses which cover in the drawers should always have separate frames for the more perfect exclusion of dust and mites.

Well seasoned mahogany or deal may be the material for the drawers, but on no account let them be of cedar, a material often used by ignorant or unprincipled makers, to the great detriment of the collection, and mortification of the collector, as resinous matter after a short time exudes from the pores of this wood, dropping down on to the gla.s.ses below in a gummy shower, and the effluvium seems to condense upon the contained insects, whose wings are gradually discoloured and disfigured by greasy looking blotches. The drawers are lined at bottom with cork, covered with _pure white_ paper, which should be attached with _thin_ paste.

The b.u.t.terflies are then to be arranged in the drawers in perpendicular columns, and in accordance with some system of cla.s.sification. If there be room it is well to have a considerable number of specimens of each species, especially when it is one liable to much variation. At least one of each s.e.x should always be given, and also one of each s.e.x showing the _under_ surface. When the chrysalis can be procured, that also should be pinned down with its fellow-b.u.t.terfly, and a good coloured drawing of each caterpillar would be a valuable addition to the series. Between the columns, lines should be {58} ruled varying in distance according to the breadth of the b.u.t.terflies, and small labels should be pinned down at the foot of each species giving its _specific_ name; the name of the genus being placed at the head of the _first_ species of the genus. The names of the families and sub-families under which the _genera_ are cla.s.sed are also generally given in their respective places.

I have in this little work followed the system of cla.s.sification used in the _public_ collection of British b.u.t.terflies at the British Museum, which seemed to me more intelligible and natural when applied to our very limited number of b.u.t.terflies, than did the system of Doubleday adopted in the great world-wide collection which exists in the private entomological room of the British Museum.

The following table gives the first-mentioned arrangement of all the British species under their respective genera, sub-families, and families.

The most authentic of the _reputed_ species are also here inserted in their proper places.

Fam. PAPILIONIDae.

Sub-fam. PAPILIONIDI.

PAPILIO Machaon.

-- Podalirius.

Sub-fam. PIERIDI.

GONEPTERYX Rhamni.

COLIAS Edusa.

-- Hyale.

APORIA Crataegi.

PIERIS Bra.s.sicae.

-- Rapae.

-- Napi.

-- Daplidice.

EUCHLOE Cardamines.

LEUCOPHASIA Sinapis.

Fam. NYMPHALIDae.

Sub-fam. SATYRIDI.

ARGE Galathea.

LASIOMMATA Egeria.

-- Megaera.

HIPPARCHIA Semele.

-- Janira.

-- t.i.thonus.

-- Hyperanthus.

{59} EREBIA Blandina.

-- Ligea.

-- Ca.s.siope.

CaeNONYMPHA Davus.

-- Pamphilus.

Sub-fam. NYMPHALIDI.

LIMENITIS Sybilla.

APATURA Iris.

Sub-fam. VANESSIDI.