226 ENTOMOLOGY. 



harvest for many wood-boring larvae, especially the Longi- 

 corn beetles; and weevils can be found in the spring, in all 

 stages. Numerous carnivorous coleopterous and dipterous 

 larvae dwell within them, and other larvae which eat the 

 dust made by the borers. The inside of pithy plants like 

 the elder, raspberry, blackberry, and syringa, is inhabited 

 by many of the wild bees, Osmia, Ceratina, and the wood- 

 wasps, Crabro, Stigmus, etc., the habits of which, with 

 those of their Chalcid and Ichneumon parasites, offer end- 

 less amusement and material for study. 



Ponds and streams shelter a vast throng of insects, and 

 should be diligently dredged with the water-net, and stones 

 and pebbles should be overturned for aquatic beetles, He- 

 miptera, and Dipterous larvae. 



The various sorts of galls should be collected in spring 

 and autumn and placed in vials or boxes, where their in- 

 habitants may be reared, and the 

 rafters of out-houses, stone-walls, etc., 

 should be carefully searched for the 

 nests of mud- wasps. 



Collecting Apparatus. First in im- 

 portance is the net (Fig. 264). This 

 is made by attaching a ring of brass 

 wire to a handle made to slide on a 

 pole six feet long. The net may be a 

 foot in diameter, and the bag itself 

 FIG. 264. Collecting-net, made of muslin or mosquito-netting 

 (the finer, lighter, and more durable the better), and should 

 be about twenty inches deep. It should be sewed to a nar- 

 row border of cloth placed around the wire. A light net 

 like this can be rapidly turned upon the insect with one 

 hand. The insect is captured by a dexterous twist which 

 also throws the bottom over the mouth of the net. 



The insect should be temporarily held between the thumb 

 and forefinger of the hand at liberty, and then pinned 

 through the thorax while in the net. The net we use has 

 a folding frame of stout brass wire, one side soldered to a 



