THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 103 



This may seem to be a very cumbersome plan, but I feel confident 

 that a little use will convince even the most skeptical that it is not. My 

 labels are cut from sheets of thin Bristol-board which have previously 

 been ruled as indicated above — the lines being spaced according to the 

 size of the labels desired. This ruling may be done with a pen and 

 different coloured inks, or any printer will do it quite cheaply. The 

 cutting is done so that the lines come at the top of the finished label, and 

 a supply of each kind of these is kept in separate compartments in my 

 label box. It is then as easy a matter to pick out the right sort of slip 

 upon which to write the locality as it is to use a plain white label which 

 means nothing. 



One beauty of the plan is that it is capable of almost indefinite 

 expansion, and so can never be outgrown. An addition which I have 

 found useful is to have a supply of very small bits of paper, or preferably 

 light Bristol-board. These are of various colours and shapes. If the 

 specimen be of a night-flying species, I put a square black bit on the pin 

 just above the locality label. If it be active only at twilight, I use a narrow 

 black bit. If it was found in the ground, a square brown bit in the same 

 place shows that ; while a narrow brown piece indicates that it was found 

 under a board, stone, or some such thing. A minute green square tells 

 at a glance that the insect lived in a tree ; a green oblong stands for a 

 log ; and a roughly circular green bit signifies a stump habitat. A yellow 

 square indicates a carrion insect ; while a yellow oblong is put upon the 

 pin of one found in manure. And so we can run through the whole 

 gamut of insect environment, although, I think, these will be found to 

 cover most of the ground, providing we add a symbiosis label. This 

 may conveniently be a white one, small as possible, upon which is 

 written the name of the other symbiont ; e. g. " golden-rod," " dog,'' or 

 " Formica sp" 



We have, by this means, always with the insect, not only the date 

 and locality of its capture, but compact notes of its habitat and general 

 environment. Your notebook is always open and never lost. A case of 

 insects becomes, in fact, a notebook illustrated by specimens. It is 

 then something more than mere " dried bugs," interesting as they may be. 

 Furthermore, a supply of such labels taken into the field is an exceed- 

 ingly easy and accurate method of making field notes, as the appropriate 

 ones can readily be slipped into the paper or box with the insect. 



Frank E. Lutz, Chicago, 111. 



