COLLECTING. 109 



ber of species than the entire continents of South America 

 and Africa. Thus the entomologist who ventures beyond 

 our temperate islands, must not lay his plans as he would 

 for our native insects, but must first obtain an idea of the 

 products of the country he is about to visit, from a careful 

 insj)ection of some national or other large collection. The 

 gigantic butterflies and beetles of South America, and the 

 huge and grotesque species of walking leaves or Mantides^ 

 require different treatment in their capture and preserva- 

 tion to that which we would bestow on our humbler tribes. 

 The boxes wherein to collect them must be of larger di- 

 mensions, the pins must be longer and stronger, and the 

 bottles for those which are to be brought home in spirits 

 must be very capacious, and very wide in the mouth ; and 

 however great may be supposed the facility of obtaining 

 the requisite stock of materials when abroad, it will be 

 found the more prudent course to take fi-om home every 

 article that can be obtained there, with the exception of 

 spirits, which, alas ! are but too abundant wherever what 

 is called civilization has begun, or wherever the white man 

 has set his foot. The dress of the entomologist under the 

 vertical rays of a tropical sun, must be adapted to the heat 

 he has to bear ; and every reasonable precaution should be 

 used against the bites of poisonous snakes, gad-flies, &c. — 

 Where the heat is intense, life is no sooner extinct in an 

 animal than the process of putrefaction commences, and in 

 a few hours it would become a mass of corruption : it is 

 therefore indispensable to empty the bodies of some of the 

 larger insects, filling the cavity with cotton wool, or some 

 other material, soft, elastic and dry. Finally, when the 

 entomologist is rewarded with abundant success, his care 

 must not cease ; for the ants and white ants which abound 

 in the tropics, will penetrate his store-houses and lay waste 

 their contents. To guard as far as possible against such a 



