108 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:3— Mar., 1914 



induced by a lowered temperature and aided by changes in food 

 and by many minor forces. It may even be an hereditary trait 

 which persist in spite of altered conditions. 



Schurz High School, Chicago 



Some Insect Studies 



Alice Jean Patterson 



The study of insects formed a portion of the work taken up last 

 fall in a course in nature-study in our normal school. Most of the 

 students taking the course had come directly from country schools 

 and all of them expect sooner or later to return to rural districts 

 to teach. 



Altho these young people had spent their lives upon the farm 

 they had a surprisingly slight acquaintance with insects, or in 

 fact, with any other form of life with which they had been con- 

 stantly surrounded since their childhood. It is true that they knew 

 by sight a few species of insects and by hearsay a few more, but 

 they had little knowledge of the habits and characteristics of 

 even these few. To most of them all insects were "bugs", creatures 

 to be avoided, or if they must be met, to be stepped upon or put 

 out of existence in some other way. 



The purpose of the study, therefore, was, (l), to awaken in these 

 country boys and girls an abiding interest in insect life; (2), to help 

 them to appreciate the fact that farmers need to know something 

 of the characteristics and habits of insects, need to distinguish 

 friends from foes before they can cope intelligently with these 

 small creatures that invade their fields, orchards, and gardens; 

 (3) , to direct the study so that the students might gain some power 

 in attacking simple problems and in finding answers in nature 

 objects instead of books, some power in seeing, thinking, and 

 judging independently ; (4) , to help them form some ideal towards 

 which to work when they became teachers in rural schools. 



In all of the work, both in the selection of material and in 

 methods of presentation the purposes, especially the last one, were 

 not lost sight of for a moment. I knew that in the short time we 

 could give to the study it would be impossible for the students to 

 make the acquaintance of many insects. What I hoped to do was 



