fanailiaij llutomolu^bt. 



Vol. XXXVII. LONDON, FEBRUARY, 1905. No. 2 



PRACTICAL AND POPULAR ENTOMOLOGY.— No. 2. 



Entomology in Schools. 



by h. s. saunders, toronto. 



Having prepared a case of insects for a Toronto Public School 

 teacher, for her class-room, I thought it might be a stimulus to others to 

 do likewise, if the details were given some publicity. 



All of us with medium-sized or large collections have duplicates 

 enough from which to select material for such a case without impoverishing 

 our collections, and now that so many public schools have departments of 

 manual training there should be no difficulty in getting the teachers in 

 these departments to co-operate by supplying the necessary cases. As a 

 suggestion to manual-training teachers, the principal point in building 

 insect cases is making them proof against pests; /. e., tight-jointed. The 

 simplest form of case would be one with a rabbet on the inside edge of 

 the sides, into which a piece of glass could' be placed and fastened with 

 gummed paper. Sheet cork is necessary as a lining in the bottom of the 

 case to hold the pins securely. 



My idea in preparing the case was to give the scholars some knowl- 

 edge of the leading characteristics of the principal orders and, with the 

 specimens, fixing these points in their minds. 



The accompanying plate needs no further explanation, except supply- 

 ing what we are unable to read here on the labels. The pronunciation 

 of classical names is indicated by very small hyphens and accent marks. 

 Each label has a red border and black lettering. The size of the case is 

 19x16 inches. Most of the insects have individual labels on the pins 

 giving the common name. 



Insects, class Hexapoda, or the animal kingdom (from the Greek, 

 hex — six, and pons — foot).— Air breathing, with distinct head, thorax and 

 abdomen, three pairs of legs and usually one or two pairs of wings in the 

 adult stage. Insects comprise four-fifths of the animal kingdom. 



Order Hymenoptera (hymen — membrane, pteron — wing). Bees, 

 wasps, ants. — Four wings, comparatively few or no transverse veins. Hind 

 wings smaller than fore wings. 



