COLLECTING. 



293 



The boxes most useful are card boxes with a glass bottom (not top). They can 

 be bought or are made by the North West Soap Company, Calcutta. At a pinch 

 old match-boxes are very good. A strong knife is handy for digging and for extract- 

 ing " borers." A lens is absolutely necessary, and is best got from London or 

 Germany. I prefer Leitz's aplanatics, magnifying 10 or 16 diameters, but there are 

 many patterns of aplanatic and Steinheil lenses that are equally good. The handiest 

 net I know of is the so-called kite or balloon net (fig. K, page 302), made of four pieces 

 of cane, a brass Y and a bag of green muslin. Killing bottles vary for different groups, 

 but the cyanide or B. C. bottle is best for general work. 



It is impossible to say anything in detail of special collecting in each group. 

 Aptera are got by careful search in decaying vegetation, bark, under leaves, in all 

 sorts of nooks and odd places. A camel-hair brush and a bottle of absolute alcohol or 

 95 % spirit is the best way to secure specimens unhurt, unless they be taken home alive 

 with some damp material in a box. The absolute alcohol and brush secures perfect speci- 

 mens of the active Campodea or Collembola forms, and they die rapidly in the alcohol. 



Orthoptera vary with the family. Earwigs are found on the ground in woods or 

 in flowers, Cockroaches under leaves or among low plants or on the bark of trees. 

 Mantids, Phasmids, Grasshoppers, in crops, on plants, on bushes. Crickets among 

 fallen leaves, in bushes, in the ground, etc. A net is useful for grasshoppers, but sharp 

 eyes and hands are all that the other families require. 



Neuroptera want a net ; dragon-flies are everywhere ; Hemerobiids are on crops 

 chiefly or among bushes under trees ; Myrmeleonides, Mantispides, AscalapJiides 

 under trees out in the sun. Perlids, Sialids, Ephemerids and Caddisflies near 

 fresh water. Termites in their nests or at lights. Emliids come to lights. Psocids 

 are on trees and bushes. Mallophaga on birds, etc. There is a big range for the 

 Neuropterist and an almost unexplored one. 





Visjflr^'4^ 



Fia. J. 



A ginned Dragon-fly (Neuroptera). 



JJymenoptera distinctly want a net in most cases, and far more necessary than 

 collecting is the patient watching and breeding. Benzene is a peculiarly good 



