COLLECTING AND REARING INSECTS. 227 



stout brass tube, the other held in place by a screw in the 

 end of the tube; it is simple and useful in travelling. The 

 pin can be drawn through the meshes upon opening the 

 net. The beatiny-net should be made much stouter, with 

 a shallower cloth bag and attached to a shorter stick.* It 

 is used for beating trees, bushes, and herbage for beetles 

 and Hemiptera and various larvae. Its thorough use we 

 would recommend in the low vegeta- 

 tion on mountains and in meadows. 

 The -water-net may be either round 

 or of the shape indicated in Fig. 2G5. 

 The ring should be made of brass, 

 and the shallow net of grass-cloth or FIG. 265. water-net, 

 coarse millinet. It is used for collecting aquatic insects. 

 Mr. Schmelter recommends for collecting small water- 

 beetles, etc., a net made of ordinary muslin, with a bottom 

 of the finest brass wire-cloth, the meshes of which do not 

 exceed | mm. ; the water will readily pass through this net, 

 while the smallest insects will be retained. Herr Isen- 

 schmidt suggests in " Entomologische Nachrichten" a net 

 constructed entirely of woven wire, but this would be 

 clumsy to carry about, and Schmelter's net is preferable. 



Various sorts of forceps are indispensable for handling 

 insects. Small, delicate, narrow-bladed forceps, with fine 

 sharp points, such as are used by jewellers, and made either 

 of steel or brass, are excellent for handling minute speci- 

 mens. For larger ones, long, curved forceps are very con- 

 venient. For pinning insects into boxes the forceps 



* Schmelter uses one made of a strong wire ring of from one to one 

 and a half feet in diameter, with a bag of muslin attached of at least 

 the same depth, firmly fixed to the end of a stick about two to three 

 feet long. In another form which is much used " the ring consists of 

 different parts, two or three, which are connected by means of joints, 

 and the ring can be folded when not in use. By means of a screw 

 the ends of this ring are firmly fixed into a tube, which again fits 

 tightly on the end of an ordinary walking cane. In any fishing-tackle 

 store, rings of this or of a similar construction are for sale." (Bull. 

 Brooklyn Ent. Soc., i. 26.) Dr. Bailey describes and figures a net 

 with a folding frame in Can. Ent. , x. 62. 



