BRITISH BEETLES. 



MOST Entomologists commence the study of insects as boys, and 

 begin by collecting everything they meet with; but they speedily 

 find the subject too large to attack as a whole, and either aban- 

 don it entirely, or finally restrict their attention to one group of 

 insects, their choice being commonly guided by the bent of some 

 older friend, who has already formed a preference for one parti- 

 cular Order. 



As the insects most easily collected and preserved are 

 Lepidoptera, or Butterflies and Moths, and Coleoptera, or Beetles, 

 it is only natural that these should receive the lion's share of the 

 attention of Entomologists, though this is less exclusively the 

 case than it was some years back. In the present little book it 

 is our intention to give a few hints for the collection and preser- 

 vation of beetles, followed by a brief outline of their classifica- 

 tion, and a notice of some few of the more interesting British 

 species. 



On account of the greater number of Coleoptera often collected, 

 their tenacity of life, and other reasons, it is found impractic- 

 able to pin them into collecting boxes in the field, as is gener- 

 ally done with Lepidoptera. Those with dark or metallic colours 

 may be collected in weak spirits of wine, but this must be 

 avoided in the case of red or hairy beetles. Or small beetles 

 may be brought home alive, in a glass bottle with a little blotting- 

 paper at the bottom, and a wide quill closed by a plug thrust 

 through the cork, through which fresh captures may be dropped 

 without opening the bottle. But larger or predaceous beetles 

 must be put into another bottle, charged with some substance 

 which will kill or stupify them at once. For this purpose 



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