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Collecting Insects: The Beautiful World of Butterfly Collections

Insect collecting can be a fascinating, educational hobby for those of any age. With thousands of colorful and exotic insects to choose from, you can start a unique insect collection that allows you to study and learn about your favorites.

Because most insects have hard outer shells, they preserve well and are easy to mount and display. As you choosing which insects to add to your collection, be sure to follow collecting laws to ensure the survival of insects in the wild. International laws dictate the guidelines for worldwide collecting to establish safe insect collecting and encourage humane killing of insects by collectors.

While insect collecting can negatively affect the natural population of some bugs, often times, these bugs are endangered due to the destruction of their natural habitats. Because most of the exotic, endangered insects live in extremely unique environments, they are usually protected from the everyday collector. However, some collectors that are concerned with maintaining a balanced insect population raise insects at home to release into the wild whenever they kill some to add to their collections.

Butterfly Collections
Butterflies are probably the most popular insect to collect because of their beautiful colors and widespread availability. You can find butterflies outside your home, in yards, around buildings, near flowers or gardens, by lakes or water, or in fields and parks. While catching butterflies takes practice, your best chance is while they're resting. If you want to start a butterfly collection of your own, knowing how to capture, kill, mount and label your butterflies is the first place to start.

To capture a butterfly, slowly approach the butterfly and try to catch it in your net. The next challenge is getting it into a jar to carry back with you. When the butterfly's wings are closed, pinch it quickly with your finger and thumb right on its thorax, the place between it head and abdomen. Do this in one quick movement to stun the butterfly for long enough so you can get it into your jar.

Humanely Killing Butterflies
For hobbyists, freezing is probably the most humane and easiest way to kill insects for collecting. Putting your jar, with the butterfly inside, into your freezer will slow its body processes, causing it to drift off to sleep and die. Put a piece of paper in the jar to help the butterfly hide: this will prevent it from hurting itself if it tries to escape. Leave the butterfly in the freezer for at least 24 hours.

Another way to humanely kill insects is to place them in a kill jar. To make a kill jar, place some cotton balls soaked with nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol at the bottom of a jar. Put a piece of paper with holes in it over the cotton balls to prevent the bug from coming into direct contact with the moist cotton. Once you catch an insect, it only takes a few minutes in the kill jar to get the job done. Alternately, the freezer method can take up to an hour.

Whatever method you choose, remember to prevent moisture from reaching the bug. Any moisture will cause the bug to discolor and deteriorate, making it an unsuitable specimen to mount in your collection.

Mounting and Labeling Butterflies
Add your butterfly to your collection by mounting and labeling it for display. Most insect collectors use glass-covered containers and mount the insects to the bottom of the display box using pins. While you can easily pin down larger butterflies, you may need to glue smaller butterflies to a piece of paper and then pin them down.

Although you can pin a specimen down in a number of ways, experts generally recommend securing the pin in the insect's thorax, with the wings spread open and secured as well. You'll need to position the wings using a spreading board, a piece of equipment available at most hobby stores. The board should be twice as long as your butterfly. Pull the wings into place with a pin placed behind one of the large veins in the wings. If you have never mounted a butterfly before or are unsure of how to pin down a certain specimen, check diagrams of pinning positions in books or online to ensure you have the wings positioned right in your display.

Labeling your insects is the next important step to creating a beautiful and organized collection. Always label insects as you mount them to ensure that you don't forget to label any specimen in your collection. You can hand write the labels or print them off using a computer. Pin the labels parallel with your butterfly's body, either above or below the specimen. The best labeling systems include as much information about the butterfly as possible. Here is a list of some information to include on your labels:

  • the country and state, city or town where the bug was found
  • the date you collected it (Dates are often written with the day first: 19-Oct-2007.)
  • the habitat and how you collected it
  • the type of species and sex.

Sometimes using pinning blocks, a piece of wood with three holes, can be used to secure multiple labels. These can also be found at hobby stores.

Supplies for Butterfly Collecting
Before you start collecting butterflies, make sure you have the right insect collecting supplies. Go to a craft, hobby or hardware stores (or an online supplier) to pick up the following supplies:

  • butterfly net
  • box or container with a glass lid for viewing
  • jars for freezing the insects
  • labels or paper for labeling
  • pinning board
  • pins (these can be common pins or special insect pins made of stainless steel to prevent rusting)
  • spreading board
  • tweezers or pliers
  • white glue.

Bug Collections for Kids
Because insect collecting is an educational hobby, you may want to get your children involved to help them learn about insects. Not only will they learn about nature, but mounting their collection will also teach them organizational skills. Start by deciding what you want to collect and then gather very basic supplies to capture, freeze, mount and display the bugs.

Children should also decide how they want to display their collection and what type of mounting and labeling they prefer.Books and simple starter kits designed just for children are readily available in most craft and game stores.

With the right insect collecting supplies and some tips on collecting, you are ready to revel in this fascinating, informative hobby!
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