Page Fourteen 



Nature Study Notes 



Monthly Feature for Study Groups 



By Nathan S. Washton 



Merit Badge Counselor, Nature Study. 

 Boy Scouts of America 



COLLECTING INSECTS 



THE reader should make a collection 

 of insects for study. An econom- 

 ical method for preserving specimens, 

 suitable for the beginner, is as follows : 

 On the bottom of a cigar box or simi- 

 lar box glue some strips of corn-pith, 

 or slices of large cork stoppers, into 

 which pins can easily be stuck. 



Pin the collected insects to the cork, 

 leaving the head of the pin sufficiently 

 above the insect to grasp it with the 

 fingers. Be careful not to have the 

 insect too far down on the pin, as its 

 legs would touch the box and break off. 



Insects may be killed by immersing 

 them in alcohol for a few minutes. 

 Butterflies and moths may be killed 

 by pressing the body with thumb and 

 forefinger just enough to kill without 

 crushing them. The fumes of benzine 

 or ether will also kill insects. 



It is best for several friends to go 

 together in search of specimens, as the 

 activity and success of one will en- 

 courage the others. Good places for 

 collecting are the waysides, borders of 

 woods, gardens, fences, lakeshores, 

 brooks, under stones and stumps, the 

 bark of fallen trees, or beneath the 

 layers of dead leaves. 



EXAMINING INSECTS 



Observe that insects having three 

 pairs of legs have the body divided 

 into three parts, the head, thorax and 

 abdomen, and that with few exceptions 

 they have wings. These are called 

 True Insects, or Hexapods, meaning 

 "six legs". The ant, fly and wasp have 

 the three parts of the body distinctly 

 separated, but in certain beetles they 

 are so close together that it is difficult 

 to distinguish the dividing line. Exam- 

 ine at least four different types of in- 

 sects and note the head, thorax and 

 abdomen. 



Find the mouth, the eyes and the 

 feelers or antennae. The mouth is on 

 the under side of the head. It parts 

 vary greatly in different insects. In 

 those that chew their food, such as 

 beetles and grasshoppers, some of the 

 mouth parts serve as teeth or jaws, 



EVOLUTION 



and, being joined to the right and 

 left sides of the mouth, move side- 

 ways and not up and down as in 

 other animals. In the bugs proper 

 some of the mouth parts are very sharp 

 and slender, forming a long sharp 

 sting to suck the juices of plants. In 

 butterflies they form a long slender 

 tube for sucking the nectar of flowers. 

 In the common house fly the mouth 

 parts appear as a proboscis, a fleshy 

 appendage which is bent up when not 

 in use. Watch a fly as it feeds. Its 

 proboscis is unbent, and the food is 

 lapped up by it. 



In the butterfly and moth, observe 

 the long tongue, looking like a watch 

 spring. It may be uncoiled with a 

 pin. On the front of the head are 

 two feelers or antennae. These are 

 variously jointed, and vary greatly in 

 different insects. In butterflies the 

 antennae are generally long and slen- 

 der and swollen at the tips, resembling 

 drumsticks. In some moths they are 

 barbed on the sides and look like 

 feathers. 



On the sides of the head are round 

 smooth places, the eyes, entirely dif- 

 ferent from the eyes of other animals. 

 Under the microscope they are seen 

 to be divided into little spaces, like 

 the surface of a honeycomb. Each 

 little space represents an individual 

 eye. Some insects have hundreds or 

 even thousands of these little spaces 

 or eyes, called compound eyes. With 

 the microscope you may see three mi- 

 nute dots under these compound eyes. 

 These are called simple eyes. In many 

 insects, as in Dragon flies, the com- 

 pound eyes are very prominent, en- 

 abling them to look backwards as well 

 as forwards. 



• 

 Darwin and the Beetle 



"No pursuit at Cambridge gave me 

 so much pleasure as collecting beetles. 

 It was the mere passion for collecting, 

 for I did not dissect them, and rarely 

 compared their external characters with 

 published descriptions, but got them 

 named anyhow. I will give proof of 

 my zeal: one day, on tearing off some 

 old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and 

 seized one in each hand; then I saw 

 a third and new kind, which I could 

 not bear to lose, so that I popped the 

 one which I held in my right hand 

 into my mouth. Alas ! it ejected some 

 intensely acrid fluid, which burned 

 my tongue so that I was forced to 

 spit the beetle out, which was lost, as 

 was the third one." — From Charles 

 Darwin: Autobiography and Letters, 

 Edited by his son, Francis Darwin. 



Janua 



ry. 



1938 



Mosquito Music 



SOME time ago under the heading 

 'Mosquito Ignores Darwin" the 

 N. Y. Herald Tribune published with- 

 out comment the following epistle 

 from one Richard Lester: 



"Last night I was awakened from 

 my slumbers by a familiar jewsharp- 

 ian sound approaching my right ear. 

 When I felt a hairlike touch on my 

 face I whacked, and another Jersey 

 mosquito bit the dust. 



"It occurs to me that the song of 

 the mosquito, far from aiding said 

 species to survive, helps them to 

 reach mosquito heaven sooner. Why 

 is it that in the struggle for mos- 

 quito existence the singing variety 

 haven't long ago been selected out 

 as less fit, and silent mosquitoes 

 been left to inherit the earth and 

 me? That's the way things are sup- 

 posed to happen, according to the 

 best evolutionary doctrines of 

 Charles Darwin. Can it be that the 

 tunes struck up by this tiny creature, 

 as it wings its way earward, disprove 

 Darwin's venerated doctrines?" 



Nay, nay, friend Lester, it can NOT 

 be. 'That buzzing sound seems to be 

 an important feature of the love-life of 

 the mosquito, whereas whether you 

 whack a mosquito more or less is of 

 but little moment to the mosquito 

 species. Dr. C. H. Curran, entomol- 

 ogist of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History tells us that the buzzing 

 sound serves to attract the male mos- 

 quito. Of all the billions of mos- 

 quitoes that buzz, only now and then 

 one is heard and whacked by a hu- 

 man being. Most of them suck juices 

 of plants or animals not so well equip- 

 ped for mosquito whacking as man. 



The Monkey's Paw 



Two men argued evolution ; 

 Its believer nothing said, 

 But he used good elocution 

 When he scratched his itching head. 

 Elmer William Gardnier. 



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