As some difficulty is experienced in Teneriffe by persons who arrive there without already being provided with materials for collecting Lepidoptera, the description of a few useful expedients resorted to may be of service. A moderate knowledge of the Spanish language is a very useful help towards obtaining any small necessaries, but the Spanish shop-keepers are most obliging, and understand quickly by the help of a very few words what is wanted.
A butterfly-net is one of the first requisites, so some wire must be bought at the tin-smiths, of whom there are several in Orotava. With a little instruction he will make it into a ring about one foot in diameter, with a socket of tin soldered on to it. Into this socket an ordinary walking-stick can be fixed for a handle. The stick is useful to walk with over the rough ground when not required for the net, and the net can be easily carried with other necessaries one has to take on an expedition.
Mosquito-netting answers the purpose of green gauze for the net. Gauze is the best, however, and can be purchased in England, but not in Orotava. The mosquito-netting gets soft and pliable by use, but it is best to scald it in hot water before making it into a net, so as to insure a soft substance in which to catch the fragile creatures without injuring their wings or plumage. The net should be made round at the bottom, and be about a yard in length. Purchase a yard of mosquito-netting; it is sold two yards in width, and the quantity which is not used for the net serves to cover the breeding-cages, which are about to be described.
Another essential is a breeding-cage for caterpillars, and, as several are required if many butterflies and moths are to be reared, the following plan is a good one to adopt. Procure a small wooden box, about 6 or 8 inches long, or even larger, and about 3 inches deep; empty chocolate boxes are serviceable for the purpose. In each corner fix upright, with a couple of tacks, a piece of cane about 8 or 10 inches in length. Over this stretch a piece of mosquito-netting, tacking it to the edge of the box all round, except at one side, where it should be left loose, so as to be fastened down at will with two or three stout pins. The loose side can then be raised to give the caterpillars fresh food, and to remove dirt or refuse. Breeding-cages that one can purchase at any naturalists’ outfitters are made very handily of wood, zinc, and glass, and of course are very durable, but those described above last well for a season, and have the merit of being of no expense.
To procure good moths and butterflies with bright and uninjured plumage, it is best to rear them from the caterpillar stage of development, but as all varieties are not easily found, the net is usually the collector’s first resource. Raising caterpillars from the egg is a very interesting process, but it is rather tedious, and requires more knowledge and experience to meet with success than finding the insects in the next stage of development, and keeping them till they reach the perfect state.
When starting for a day’s ramble butterfly-hunting, one of the great charms seems to be the delightful uncertainty about the sport which may fall to one’s lot, so it is as well to provide for all contingencies, taking the net, poison-box, or bottle, a tin for caterpillars (which should be perforated at the top), a nest of glass-topped pill-boxes for specimens of any butterfly or moth one may wish to take home alive, and envelopes for butterflies when killed in the net. The latter may be made of note-paper, by cutting a long square of paper and folding it in a triangular shape, and then turning up the edges of two sides, so as to make a little bag.
Butterflies travel well placed flat in these envelopes, and should be set directly home is reached. A small cork collecting-box is also useful, together with some insect-pins, in case one gets many specimens, some of which can be pinned into the box preparatory to setting them on the return home.
Insect life is so prolific in Teneriffe, and one sees so many strange and curious animals, that anyone really interested in Entomology is certain to find specimens to bring home, such as the “Praying Mantis,” found frequently on half dead thistles in “barrancos” and on shrubs, the many varieties of large grasshopper, and the gorgeous coloured dragon-flies flitting about and killing butterflies in a rather wholesale manner.
All these insects are of such interest, that it is as well to be provided with various appliances for carrying them on the homeward journey.
As sunshine and brightness prevail in Teneriffe during the winter months, it is not necessary to choose a “likely” day, as in England, in order to have a good day’s sport, indeed there seem to be more butterflies on the wing on the days that are not too brilliant. On the very sunshiny days the butterflies are about in the greatest quantities in the early morning, retiring at noon to more shady or sheltered spots. A nice quiet sheltered little dell, covered with rough herbage and cactus by the sides of the barrancos, is a very favourite spot. The barrancos are dry river-beds, sometimes of great extent, with large boulders and rocks thrown about in wild confusion; generally speaking they are intersected by a path, up which one can ride or walk, leading up the mountains to different villages and hamlets.