236 



THE AMERICAN 



HOW TO COLLECT AND STUDY INSECTS-No, 3. 



BY F. G. SANBOEN, BOSTON, MASS. 



Having equipped ourselves witli the few 

 simple instruments previous!)' described, let us 

 sally forth to some unfrequented spot — a wooded 

 hill-side, sheep pasture, or, if well provided with 

 water-ijroof boots, a meadow. Each and all such 

 places prove good " collecting ground," and 

 open a vast field of research to Mm who keeps 

 his eyes open and knows how to use them. Here 

 are a few small stones, covering a square foot or 

 more of soil ; turn them, or rather lift them care- 

 fully and reverse them, so that you. can inspect 

 with one eye what has been for some days the 

 under surface, while the other eye watches for 

 any moraig, and therefore probably endeavor- 

 ing-to-escape creature. This little golden-red 

 knob, not so large as a pin's head, looks as if it 

 was part of the stone ; but wet your forefinger 

 and touch it, not exerting a pressure of more 

 than an ounce to the square inch. You have 

 brought up on his back a little lacking hexapod, 

 wliich makes futile struggles to get upon Ms feet 

 while confined to your great finger by the co- 

 hesive attraction of saliva. SUp your left fore- 

 finger and thumb into your vest pocket, and 

 extract your magnifier, open and focus it. What 

 superb joints iu all those supple feet and flexile 

 antennse; what lustre in those thimble-like, brown 

 eyes; how the little abdomen curves, contracts 

 and expands, and how the tiny elytra separate, 

 and the wings, matted 'with the moistui'e from 

 your finger, strive to lend their feeble aid to raise 

 the unhappy proprietor from his ignoble position ! 

 Nay, even the microscopic mouth opens, the little 

 brown jaws gax^e as if to remonstrate, but your 

 coarse auditory nerve catches no sound. Replace 

 your pocket glass and withdraw a small vial ; if 

 you have learned the use of your fingers, take 

 out the cork with your thumb and forefinger, 

 while you hold the vial steadily between the 

 other three fingers and the palm of the left hand. 

 Now shift your right forefinger to the mouth of 

 the vial, so that the little "specimen" is enclosed, 

 and Avith a quick motion float him off in the al- 

 cohol, re-cork, and watch him if you please. He 

 kicks still, waves his antennse frantically, opens 

 and shuts Ms wings, perhaps twenty, forty, sixty 

 seconds, and with a placid smile upon his other- 

 wise immovable features, he folds his small limbs 

 upon Ms breast, and passes happily into that 

 sleep which knows no waking. 



What is all this about? Oh, you have simply 

 captured a specimen of Olibrus nitidus, LeConte, 

 Order Coleoptera, Family Phalacridas. Original 



describer, F. E. Melsheimer, in Proc. Phila. 

 Acad. Wat. Sciences, Vol. II., page 102. And 

 this is what characterizes him, and distinguishes 

 him from every other Olibrus that has ever been 

 seen : " Short, ovate, greatly convex, light ches- 

 nut, highly polished, impunctured: head with 

 distant, very minute punctures ; eyes black : 

 sutural stria of the elj^tra faintly impressed : h line 

 long." 



But tliis is not collecting. Look again at the 

 stone; nothing more there, eh? Don't you see 

 small, shining, black objects, about five or six of 

 them, moving slowly along? Bring your magni- 

 fier to bear on one of them. It looks like a dim- 

 inutive wheel-barrow turned bottom upwards, 

 with an immense pair of sideboards dragging on 

 each side, or like a minute but irritated turkey- 

 gobbler sweeping Ms stifiened wings behind Mm. 

 Wet your finger and look at Mm beneath ; he has 

 eight feet surely, and won't do for a true insect. 

 True, he is an Arachnide, or Spider, and belongs 

 to the class denominated Mites. So few students 

 have studied up the Mites of this country, that it 

 is most probable he has never received a name ; 

 but put Mm in a vial with alcohol, and note when 

 and where he was found ; at some future date 

 we shall be able to investigate Ms structure more 

 closely with a powerful microscope, or shall 

 meet some one who can tell us more about him. 

 What are those httle gray creatures that are 

 leaping so actively, and sometimes running quite 

 briskly on the gTOu.nd or on the flat surface of the 

 stone? Look at the under side of one of these 

 longer ones and you see a little fork hinged at 

 his tail, and springing up and down, its points 

 nearly reaching his Mnder feet. TMs little insect' 

 belongs to the Spring-tails, or, as the techmcal 

 name Podura implies. Foot-tails. It is considered 

 by most naturalists, as a low form, or "degraded 

 tjqje," of the Order Neuroptera, to which the 

 Dragon-flies, Termites or Wliite Ants as they 

 are improperly termed, and May-flies belong. Its 

 body is covered with delicate scales, shaped like 

 CF.K- 143.] those of fishes, and smaller 



and finer than those on the 

 wings and bodies of the 

 butterflies and moths. These 

 scales (Fig. 149) were used 

 formerly as "test objects" for 

 the compound microscope, 

 and are so used to some 

 extent to-day for cheaper 

 instruments, the fine lines 

 ruled along the scale being 

 difficult to see clearly, or to "define," as the 

 phrase is, with a poor glass. We can keep them 

 tolerably well in alcohol, but should use a 



