SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. 



147 



Their bodies are more elongated than those of other insects. The 

 metamorphosis is incomplete, the lavas and pupse closely resemble 

 the imagines, and are both active, and with few exceptions they 

 are all aquatic. The difierent species present strong analogies to 

 all of the other suborders. The wingless lower genera present 

 more analogies than other insects to the Myriapods. 



< Insects differ sexually in that the female generally has one abdom- 

 inal ring less, and in being larger, fuller and duller colored than 

 the males, while the males have often marked differences in the 

 sculpture and ornamentation. In collecting, whenever the two sexes 

 are found united they should be pinned upon the same pin, the male 

 being placed highest. When we take one sex alone, we may feel 

 sure that the other is somewhere in the vicinity ; perhaps while one 

 is flying about so as to be easily captured, the other is hidden under 

 some leaf, or resting on the trunk of some tree near by, when every 

 bush must be vigorously beaten by the net. Many species rare in 

 most places have a metropolis when they occur in great abundance. 

 There are also insect years like apple years, when a species is more 

 abundant than for three or four years succeeding. The collector 

 should then lay up a store, against years of scarcity. 



In different seasons of the year insects are found in different 

 stages ; thus there are spring and fall insects, and summer species 

 alone. Few insects hybernate in the perfect state, the species is 

 more often represented in winter by the egg, or larva, or pupa. At 

 no time of the year need the entomologist rest from his labors. 

 In the winter, under the bark of trees and in moss he can find 

 many species, or on trees, &c. detect their eggs, which he can 

 mark for spring observation when they hatch out. 



He need not relax his endeavors day or night. Mothing is night 

 employment. Skunks and toads entomologize at night. Early in 

 the morning, at sunrise, when the dew is still on the leaves, insects 

 are sluggish and easily taken with the hand ; so at dusk when 

 many species are found flyiug ; and in the night, when many spe- 

 cies fly that hide themselves by day, and many caterpillars leave 

 their retreats to come out and feed, and the lantern can be used 

 with success to draw them out, the collector will be rewarded with 

 many rarities. 



There are species frequenting gardens, lawns, fields and deep 

 woods, and swamps and pools, that are not met with away from 



