Sifter
Perhaps no special collecting method results in more interesting, rare, and diverse kinds of insects than that involved in sifting rotten logs, leaf mold, and other forest and prairie ground cover. To do this type of collecting, provide yourself with the following:
1. A stout sifting sieve about 12 by 12 inches and 4 to 6 inches deep, [fig. 6]. The bottom may be wire screen of any desired mesh; usually 8, 10, or 12 meshes to the inch give good results.
2. A sturdy piece of white oilcloth about 18 inches or 2 feet square.
3. Collecting equipment, including an aspirator, camel’s-hair brush, forceps, vials, and killing bottle.
Material such as leaf mold is placed in the sieve and this is shaken over the white oilcloth, which has been spread on a level spot on the ground. The small insects fall on the cloth and can be picked up with the aspirator or the camel’s-hair brush. Many insects feign death when they fall to the oilcloth and they are difficult to detect in the bits of sifted material until they “revive” and start to move.
In late fall and winter, sifting provides one of the most profitable types of collecting; in any season, it will turn up such things as rare spiders and beetles. Sifting is most successful for finding large, active insects. For small, slow-moving forms, Berlese funnels offer a better collecting method.