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APPENDIX B. COLLECTING, PINNING, SETTING. 



one collects perhaps two of each sex for purposes of identification. As time goes by 

 one gets to know the ways and habits of all the common insects and gradually 

 acquires a real knowledge of the fauna of the district. This is the thorough and 

 intimate knowledge which enables one to know why an insect is in a particular spot, 



FIG. I. 



The Lemon Butterfly. To show setting of wings, the hind margin offorewing at right 



angles to the body. 



what it is doing and what its life is. This is, to the writer at least, the real work of 

 the entomologist. It is then easy to collect all available specimens of any one group 

 and the actual collection is subordinate to the field work, that is, is simply an index 

 to the knowledge acquired of the local insect life. With that index, one can sit down 

 and write the experiences for the benefit of the entomological world, and there would 

 then be a speedy advance in our knowledge of the insects of the country. As an out- 

 come of this, the study of a particular group can be taken up, and the work extended 

 over a large area. This then becomes a valuable piece of work, valuable in proportion 

 as it is based on thorough familiarity with the insects of one district and on the whole 

 life of the insects in question, not simply their external structure or the venation of the 

 wings. The tendency to commence straight away on the study of one group is deplor- 

 able ; it leads to purely systematic work, counting the spines on the margins of the 

 tibisB or the hairs on the pygidium, and there is no basis for comparative work and no 

 understanding of the enormous value of biology. The study of dried insects is not 

 entomology ; it is but a small part. Field work, involving more than mere collecting, 

 is the backbone of entomology, and the last thing really wanted is the name of the 

 insect, whereby to find out what others have said about it. Collecting, therefore, varies 

 with the aims of the entomologist, and becomes an entirely different thing as he is 

 intent on different aims. To the student of each group, different appliances are 

 necessary ; to the beginner, to the naturalist pure and simple who wants to know the 

 insects of his district, the sole requirements are boxes, a knife, a lens, and perhaps a 

 net and killing bottle, 



