COLLECTING, 



291 



turn to the wider problems of biology or even to the simpler work of " life histo- 

 ries." In India, where entomological work is little carried on, I would plead the 

 necessity of life history work, or if systematic work is essential, at least the study of 

 groups less known than the butterflies. In the popular mind, 

 entomology is "butterflies," whereas the butterflies are not 

 one-twelfth of the known insect world and are probably not one- 

 fiftieth of the actual species of insects now existing. Their 

 beauty and large size impress them on our minds ; but they are 

 from some points of view the least attractive group, as they are 

 almost without exception the least important in their influence 

 on agriculture and man's welfare. To the systematist, the beetles 

 and the flies offer unrivalled fields of work, both little touched as 

 yet and in both of which very valuable work has yet to be done 

 before the classification of these orders can be fully carried out. 

 The mantids, crickets, cockroaches, grasshoppers, and other Orthop" 



FIG. G. 



A pinned Moth, 

 wings closed. 



tera have been barely touched, from the biological as from the systematic side. 

 Myrmeleonides, Mantispides, Hemerobiids and other Neuroptera are far commoner 

 in India than in some parts of the world, and there is a splendid field here for life 

 history work. The insect life of fresh water, of the streams, ponds, tanks and lakes 

 has not been entered upon and would yield most valuable results. A very slight 

 attention paid to scale insects has yielded much that is new, and the smaller species of 

 plant bugs are found in very great variety everywhere. There is no lack of absorbing 

 work and there should be no lack of workers in a country where so many have to find 

 their own interests and hobbies, and live surrounded by the marvellously varied insect 

 world. The naturalist in India has two great advantages not to be found everywhere. 

 Publication is easy in the pages of the Asiatic Society or Bombay Natural History 

 Society's Journal, which bring the work before an appreciative audience ; the Indian 

 Museum is there to help and is glad to receive specimens which are then part of 

 what I may call the National Indian Collection, and really part of the National 

 Collection gathered at the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington. 

 Through the Indian Museum, the help of the workers in the British Museum is 

 readily obtained, and the Indian Museum reference collections, though not complete, 

 have been worked on by the leading European specialists. 



Collecting. 



In the popular mind, an entomologist is a temporarily insane person, usually hot, 

 flushed and panting, who careers wildly after butterflies armed with a large net. 



The real entomologist is probably to be 



found in the fields, with no net or other 

 appliances except a few pill boxes, a knife 

 and a good lens. Collecting differs accord- 

 ing to the group to be collected; those 

 who want to know the ways and habits 

 of the common insects will spend hours out 

 in the open simply watching. The best 

 knowledge of the insect fauna of a district 

 is got by patient watching. As soon as 

 a particular species becomes quite familiar 



j* 



Fia. H. 

 A pinned Moth, wings set. 



