74 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



made into the country within a radius of twenty-five miles of the 

 city, with such marked success that by the middle of July the col- 

 lection was pronounced by a number of visitors to equal in in- 

 terest any exhibition of the kind heretofore attempted in this 

 country, or in Europe. In view of the marked interest created 

 by this display, the insect collection will hereafter be a perma- 

 nent feature of the Park. 



"There are so many possibilities in exhibiting living insects 

 that it was difficult to select groups to feature for the summer. 

 The first steps, however, were directed toward exhibiting a series 

 of the diff'erent insects that "sing," and also a series of species 

 injurious to the interests of the agriculturists, together with a 

 number of insects of economic value. The collection of singing 

 insects was such a marked success that it will be continued dur- 

 ing the coming summer. The other features will be changed 

 every few weeks during the warm season, 



"We are now gathering from both the Old World and the 

 New, a fine collection of the larger silk moths. The cocoons will 

 be shown on panels, and inasmuch as a number of the moths will 

 be emerging daily, this exhibit should be popular. During the 

 winter the insect collection is made up largely of tropical species; 

 and in this series we include the large bird-killing spiders, scor- 

 pions and centipedes, even though these creatures are not to be 

 classified as true insects. 



"The collection of singing insects of the past summer was 

 composed of the meadow locust, greater and lesser cone-headed 

 locusts, the Katy-did, broad-winged locust, field cricket, lesser 

 field cricket, smooth-winged cricket and two species of tree crick- 

 ets. There were about five hundred specimens in the collection, 

 and at times the noise made by them was so great that visitors 

 had to shout to one another to make their own voices clear. The 

 sounds coming from this collection varied according to the time 

 of day. It was late in the afternoon, when the larger locusts 

 commenced their singing (which is continued throughout the 

 night), and inasmuch as the strictly diurnal species were yet 

 active, the insect chorus was quite vociferous. 



"It was only with considerable difficulty that the singing in- 

 sects were collected. It is impossible to capture the larger 

 locusts during the day, for they are keen of sight and, while they 

 begin singing late in the afternoon, their song is intermittent, 

 and stops as soon as they note the presence of the collector. The 

 best time to capture them is at night, when the collector stalks the 

 loudest singers, and by approaching within definite investigating 

 distance, can accurately locate the insects by bringing into use 



