COLLECTING. 105 



they may also be occasionally found in company with 

 many minute Diptera on our windows, and this situation 

 may prove a very prolific one when an entomologist on his 

 travels is detained by a rainy day. 



Coleoptera, or beetles, are to be found every where : on 

 the flowers, leaves, and bark of living plants ; on the bark 

 and wood of dead or dying trees ; in the carcasses of dead 

 animals; in living or putrefying Fungi; in all kinds of 

 dung and rubbish ; in flour ; in com ; under stones and 

 logs of timber ; in cellars ; under faggot-stacks ; in earth, 

 at the roots of trees ; in sand and gravel pits ; in moss ; 

 in mud ; in water ; and very frequently flying in the air. 

 Beetles are captured with greater facility than any other 

 class of insects : the best instruments are, the clap-net for 

 holding under trees while you beat the leaves ; the forceps 

 for taking them off flowers ; a digger for sand or gravel 

 pits, and earth at the roots of trees, or for stripping the 

 bark off a decaying trunk ; and finally the water-net, which 

 may be used with great success where there are many 

 water-plants growing in little stagnant pools. When bee- 

 tles are taken, as a general rule they may be put in a glass 

 vial filled with weak spirits of wine, but a few which are 

 of bright or delicate colours may be carried home alive in 

 tin boxes, vials, quills, or pill-boxes. In the winter months 

 moss should be brought home from the woods and shaken 

 over a white cloth ; by this process an immense number 

 of minute beetles may be obtained. 



Orthoptera are generally found in the autumn in dry 

 meadows : there are but few species inhabiting this coun- 

 try, and these may be taken with the clap-net ; their cap- 

 ture will be found troublesome, and there are so many 

 individuals in proportion to the number of species, that 

 entomologists have very much neglected them, thinking 

 them scarcely worth the toil of collecting. Crickets in- 



