164 IKSTEUCTIONS FOE COLLECTING INSECIS. 



desires, or to rely on his specimens being named by some person wbo 

 has already mastered the difficulties of this bibliographical maze. 



HYMENOPTERA.* 



The Hymenoptera are insects furnished with /owr memhranous ivings, 

 and ■which, in general, are capable of wounding by means of a siing, 

 such as the wasps, hornets, bees, ichneumons, &c. They should be 

 taken in a net or in pill boxes, but never more than a single insect 

 should be put in one box. 



They are found on flowers, bushes, and on walls, exposed to the sun 

 or warmed declivities, in sandy places and in the earth. Their 

 j)resence is often at once recognized by the existence of numerous 

 holes in sandy places or in walls forming their habitations or the 

 places where their young are deposited ; all the ants belong to this 

 order of insects. When an ant's nest has been found it is necessary 

 to open it in order to secure a large number of individuals ; in the 

 interior, individuals with wings are found ; these are the males and 

 females, which it is very important to obtain. 



The collector should secure the nests of Hymenoptera ; they will be 

 found fixed to the roofs of houses, in the holes of trees, pendent from 

 branches, &c. The nests are often closed and have but one orifice ; this 

 may be frequently stopped up and the branch containing it cut off and 

 secured with all its contents. When they are more fragile they should 

 .be carried in boxes, with which the collector should provide himself 

 for this purpose, and protected by means of cotton or soft moss. It 

 is very important to know what are the species which construct these 

 nests, and it is therefore indispensable either to pin the insect and in- 

 clude the nest on the same pin, or fix the tv/o on pins designated by 

 the same number. 



The collector should make a record of his observations, designating 

 the individuals by numbers in case he is unacquainted with their 

 names, and note the peculiarities of their habitations, their prey, their 

 utility or their injurious qualities or habits, &c. 



Hymenoptera should be set in the same manner as the Diptera, and 



should be killed by means of the fumes of sulphur or with chloroform. 



The legs should be placed in a natural position, and the tongue 



pushed forward so that this important organ, when present, as in bees, 



vmay be easily examined. 



ORTHOPTERA.t (Linn.) 



Earwigs, cockroaches, spectres or walking-sticks, praying-mantes, 

 grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, &c., belong to this order; their 

 habits are generally to feed upon vegetable matter of all kinds, and 

 some of them, as the cockroaches, prey upon various materials of food 



in houses, &c. ... , , . 



Ear-ivlgs are mostly to be found, during the day time, concealed in 



o Furnished by Dr. B. ClemeEP. ^ • , . , t, 



f The paragraphs on Orthopteia, Heniiptera, and Neuroptera, have been furnished by P. 

 E. Uhler, Esq., of Baltimore. 



