ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



199 



my correspondents in the East, who has the 

 happiness to have access to the very best scien- 

 tific library in the whole country. At my re- 

 quest he will, I know, compare tlic specimens 

 sent with the descriptions to which lie has free 

 access every day, while I should have to travel 

 a thousand miles to get to them. I do this; and 

 now, having- done my best, I will calmly and 

 peacefully await results. But by this time it is 

 10 1'. M., and I am beginning to feel sleepy and 

 tired. Suppose I adjourn to the county of Bed- 

 ford ? 



[Fig. l->2.] 



=^ 



11/ 



■ now TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS— No. 2. 



IIV F. G. SANltORX, DOJ>TON, MASS, 



One can scarcely walk a mile in the country 

 without obtaining some object to grace his 

 cabinet, or observing some fact 

 in natural history to add to his 

 store-house of mental treas- 

 ures. It should be borne in 

 mind by the student collector 

 that, notwithstanding he may 

 piopose to confine his studies 

 to one Order of insects, he 

 should also contract a habit 

 ol ob-erving and collecting 

 j 11 tbo e of other Orders, as well 

 as '.uch small and portable 

 |F|f| \eilebratcs and other inverte- 

 ■j^' [ 111 itos as his opportunities 

 ;, ' 111 i\ enable him to capture and 

 pie=crvo. Alcoholic specimens 

 ot Mammals, Birds, Fishes, 

 l^eptiles, Mollusks, Crustacea, 

 and facts concerning them, 

 aie marketable commodities 

 m the Exchanges of Science. 

 Especial ly sliould this plan be 

 I lied out by the collector 

 1 1 may be established for a 

 II nil of months or years in a 

 Kgion remote from libraries 

 uid nnisoums. Such study 

 and investigation in this field 

 as his time permits, will of 

 itself materially enlighten his mind upon the 

 secrets of Nature; and, although destitute of 

 book.s — those records of repeated failures and 

 few successful attempts lo unmask Nature's 

 protean face — he may learu the structure, habits 

 and comparative intelligence of the creatures 

 around liim. A subseijucnt opportunity may 

 occur for him to ascertain, if so disposed, the 

 diflerent technical names imposed upon "Mouse 



No. 7," "Bird and nest, XII," or "Bug No. 427," 

 and accepted by the scientific world. 



Should he care only to acquaint himself with 

 the nomenclature of some limited group or 

 order, and wish to incrca.se his cabinet in that 

 specialty, he will find that he has the powers of 

 a capitalist to invest his miscellaneous collection 

 of specimens and facts in such manner as he 

 may prefer. Thanks to the diversity of tastes 

 implanted in us, there is always some eager 

 specialist — individual, or backed by an associa- 

 tion — standing ready to give full value for, and 

 "work up," this or that portion of such ma- 

 terial. 



The practice of noting (with ink if possible) 

 in a small blank book, or on cards, such facts 

 and observations as he may make or discover, 

 adds immensely to the value of any collection, 

 and can not be too strongly recommended to the 

 collector. The date of capture of a specimen, 

 of the transformation from the egg, larva or 

 pupa, of the appearance or disappearance from 

 its usual haunts, and such other items of interest 

 that arise in connection with the specimen, are 

 of importance to the student, and should be 

 therein set down. A small tag or ticket of 

 paper attached to the dry specimen, or of parch- 

 ment, leather, or soft metal to the alcoholic, and 

 bearing a number corresponding to that in the 

 note-book, renders the information thus obtained 

 available, and sufficiently identifies the speci- 

 men. As the coUecloi' pursues his investigations 

 month after month, he will find his senses be- 

 coming educated to a delicacy of touch and 

 fineness of perception that can not fail to be a 

 source of pride and gratification to him. He 

 whose attention would not at first be diverted 

 to the ragged leaves of a caterpillar-ridden tree, 

 will in a few months notice instantly the slight 

 convexity of outline on twig or leaf caused by 

 the presence of a small insect, or the extremity 

 of a branch cleanly cut by a Prunur-beetle. 



In the course of his observations he will be 

 amused by the imitative shapes and colors of 

 many forms of insect life, and will frequently 

 be deceived by the Curculios, who successfully 

 simulate buds and bits of bark. Tlie caterpillars 

 of some of the moths resemble so closely cylin- 

 drical twigs, as many of the Loopers (Geonie- 

 tridce) ; scales of rough or smooth bark, as the 

 Hag-moth {Llrnacodeti pitheciuiii) , and the Lap- 

 pet-moths {Gastroijacha veUedavinA americ(ma). 

 Some of the Beetles, as the Cri/ptocepha/i and 

 Ilisters, closely resemble seeds, as do certain 

 Bugs, among them Corimelaena, and the two 

 latter suggest such kinship as to cause them 

 almost invariably to fraternize in the cabinet of 



