Preparation of Pselaphidae for Study 



Once the catch has been returned to the laboratory it should be taken care 

 of promptly. Pselaphids brought in for study, either taken at random, or 

 with ants, must be placed in larger, more suitable containers. They may be 

 placed in one of the many excellent artificial nests described by Wheeler 

 (1910) and their fascinating behavior observed and experimented upon. 



For isolated species, or for the particular study of their more intimate 

 relations and requirements with mold or nest co-inhabitants, small petri-dish 

 nests are satisfactory (Park, 1929, 1932a, 1933b). Such nests can be examined 

 under the dissecting binocular with ease, and at length. Far too little is known 

 concerning the life of our small mold insects, and it is a commentary upon 

 our use of the methods available, and our intellectual curiosity, that so much 

 priceless material is killed and identified — often without data of any kind — 

 before an effort is made to obtain information about the living animal. A 

 properly mounted dead specimen can yield up its taxonomic or morphologic 

 secrets for a span of years, but the chance to gain knowledge of its equally 

 important physiology and ecology has passed for ever. 



Entire colonies of ants, or whole sections of logs, can be kept indefinitely 

 in the laboratory if the requisite moisture, temperature, and food are provided. 



Since 1818 the problem has been challenged, but practically no data have 

 been collected upon the embryology and post-embryonic stages of Pselaphidae ; 

 in fact Mueller in this year discovered more than many recent workers. The 

 larval stages of the Clavigerinae are virtually unknown to science, and but few 

 Pselaphinae have had their larvae discovered {Batrisodes monstrosus LeConte 

 and Euplectus conjiuens LeConte) and properly keyed and figured (Boving 

 and Craighead, 1931), and this much accomplished in a family of over four 

 thousand species! The food of the pselaphids, their feeding behavior, drinking 

 behavior, breeding behavior, enemies, the place they occupy in the Darwinian 

 web-of-life, their genetics, their period of activity, the critical environmental 

 influences in their lives — these questions and many more are almost if not 

 quite untouched. This, of course, holds for the majority of our species of 

 animals, and must be faced in the light of our rapidly vanishing natural areas 

 in many parts of the world. 



So much, then, for the opportunities afi'orded by the study of living ma- 

 terial. For the study of dead material three general methods are to be used: 



(1) abundant material should be kept preserved in alcohol for study en masse, 



(2) the bulk of the specimens should be mounted dry upon card points, and 



(3) for examination of the minutiae of external and internal organization, 

 e.g. sclerites, setae, genitalia, and endoskeleton, microscopic slide-mounts must 

 be made. 



(8) 



