GeniusGullu insect collection starter (GICS) Entomological Kit

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GeniusGullu insect collection starter (GICS) is a very economical and student friendly kit which consists of all of the items that are needed for basic insect collections, sampling, sorting, sample fixing, pinning and storage of collections. The kit consists of following items;

GICS Kit contents;

1. Insect collection net handle: The GICS kit comes with one collection bag with a total depth of 50cm. These netting are suitable to collect beetles, dragon flies, honey bees, butterflies and other insects from agriculture field settings.The handle of the insect collection net is 60cm in length. Comes with a 20 cm collection net ring made of aluminium. Hence the total effective length of the collection net (which includes both handle and ring) is 80cm which is sufficient to do excellent field sampling of insects. (include a picture here)

NOTE: Additional purchases can be made for using the insect collection net for various specific usages by professionals and enthusiasts like water net, sweep net for tiny insects, sweep nets as a beating nets. These are only nets that can be appended to the insect net handle provided with the kit and be used as needed.

1. Insect Killing Jar: A 350ml capacity circular glass jar with a white gypsum base, covered with a circular filter paper is provided. A small cotton ball is also placed inside the killing jar for soaking insect killing chemicals. It is sufficient to kill the collections of butterfly sized insects. 

There are several ways to anesthetize the insects. The most commonly used chemicals are ethyl acetate and chloroform. These chemicals are poisonous so we have to be careful while handling the chemicals. Use these chemicals cautiously and apply the quantities as recommended. Do not pour the chemicals directly into a killing jar.

1. Entomological fine quality forcep: A fine quality entomological forcep is also included with the kit. These forceps are especially useful for handling insects for transferring from a collection net into the killing jar or from a killing jar to the fixing board, etc. Forcep is sharp, pointed, straight, and is of 12-14 cm in total length

2. Spreading board: The collected samples are first processed to kill them. The dead insects are further processed to straighten their wings and body into a shape so that those samples can further be processed into storage. The spreading board is of 150 mm or 15 cm length with gutter depth and width of 8mm each side, and side flaps are of 47mm each. These are the general settings sufficient to spread and mount most commonly found insects. Winged insects are pinned so that their body is within the groove. This allows the wings to be extended across the board on either side of the body. The wings are then held in position by pinning strips of paper across the wings (the wings themselves are not pinned as this might damage not only the wings but also the looks of the complete specimen it self)

3. Insect Pins made of high quality stainless steel: A total of 25 numbers of No#3 size insect pins are included in the kit for pinning the collected samples. The #3 insect pin is a hardened stainless steel pin 38mm or 1.5" long suitable for pinning medium sized insects.

4. Insect Storage Box: The kit also includes one storage box made of plastics and is fitted with a soft foam material suitable for repeated pinning. Each of the insect storage boxes also comes with labels. The top portion of the storage box can be used for labeling contents of the storage box.