86 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



THE INSECT COLLECTION. 

 Raymond L. Ditmars, Curator. 



After many months of experimenting to determine the prac- 

 ticabihty of maintaining different kinds of insects as exhibits, 

 and noting what phases of this subject were most interesting 

 to our visitors, the insect series has now become a well estab- 

 lished part of the Zoological Park collection. 



Owing to the uniform interest in the cocoons of moths and 

 the chrysalids of butterflies, these parts of the collection have 

 been made particularly strong. During the spring and summer 

 of the past year we exhibited fully five thousand examples of 

 butterflies and moths in the intermediate stage. The cocoons 

 of the moths were fastened on panels of mesh, about four feet 

 long by two feet wide. Panels containing the cocoons of harm- 

 less species were hung out of doors, over descriptive labels, and 

 there was no time of the day throughout the spring and early 

 summer that insects were not to be noted in the act of ex- 

 panding and drying gaudily-colored wings preparatory to flight. 

 Several species were liberated with a view to breeding them wild 

 in the Park. These were the Polyphemus, Cecropia and Luna 

 moths, — which handsome species of our insect fauna are becom- 

 ing almost extinct over great areas. 



Particularly successful work was done in the vicinity of 

 Black Lake, Sullivan County, New York, in conjunction with 

 our reptile-collecting trip. A thoroughly representative col- 

 lection was made of the various species of singing Orthoptera, 

 and with these specimens it was possible to arrange a number of 

 large cages with descriptive labels. A number of species of 

 the Myriapoda was also placed on exhibition as the result of this 

 work. 



The series of poisonous "insects," — the spiders, centipedes 

 and scorpions, — remains in good condition, and forms a per- 

 manent part of the insect series. These creatures are quar- 

 tered in the Reptile House during the winter. We have speci- 

 mens of the great bird-eating spiders that have been on exhi- 

 bition for a period of two years. They have spun elaborate 

 silk tunnels and clearly demonstrate the construction of hiding 

 places in a native environment. 



With the close of the year the insect collection is composed 

 largely of an elaborate series of cocoons ready to be placed on ex- 

 hibition when the occupants are ready to emerge with the com- 

 ing warm weather. 



