COLLECTING BEETLES. 271 



being brittle, will easily fall off; after it is all removed, the 

 specimen may be brushed with a fine camel's-hair brush 

 until clean. Specimens treated in these ways will never 

 again become oily. (Can. Ent., xviii. 78.) 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING COLEOPTERA. 



Beetles should be pinned for the cabinet through the 

 right wing-cover (Fig. 266). They are found in every variety 

 of situation : on plants, in decomposing animal and vege- 

 table matter, in mushrooms, under bark of trees, under 

 stones, especially in moist and shady situations ; many are 

 found creeping on the ground, in desert and other arid 

 spots in western America. Some are attracted by caudles at 

 night ; a lighted candle may be fastened in a piece of glass 

 tube just above a funnel, the lower extremity of which ends 

 in a bottle of alcohol. By using a piece of cyanide of potas- 

 sium in place of the alcohol in the bottle, other insects may 

 be captured (such a trap may be set out through a still 

 night for moths). A similar apparatus has been used with 

 success in collecting beetles in fungi, the latter being held 

 over a funnel and rapped a few times, causing the beetles 

 to run out and drop into the mouth of the funnel and 

 thence into the bottle ; while others (in all parts of the 

 country) fly actively on being approached and light again 

 on the ground a few paces off. 



Mr. F. G. Schaupp collects on the sandy banks of rivers 

 large numbers of small ground-beetles, by pouring water 

 over the small holes in the sand and on the plants growing 

 at the edge of the water ; this causes them to run out of 

 their retreats by the hundreds. Clivina and Dyschirius 

 live in holes in the sand, Omophron and Heterocerus under 

 the plants, the rest hide under the small stones on the 

 banks. He also cuts out pieces of turf by the water's edge 

 and places them in water, thus collecting both beetles and 

 their larvae and pupje. 



Burying-beetles may be attracted by placing small pieces 



