11 



COLLECTING SPECIMENS AND RECORDING OPERATIONS. 



The equipment for collecting specimens need not be expensive or 

 elaborate. The necessaries are: A hatchet or light ax, carried in a 

 scabbard, which may be fastened to a stout belt; a hunting coat, or aa 

 ordinary sack coat, with man^^ pockets; a supply of collecting vials of 

 various sizes, fitted with the best cork stoppers; a small bottle of 

 alcohol; a medium and a small cyanide bottle; tweezers; camel's hair 

 brushes; a stout knife with small and large blades; a small saw; a net 

 and umbrella; and last, but not least important, a notebook and pencil. 

 With this equipment, or such part of it as is required for the special 

 kinds of specimens desired, a good obsei'ver can go out in the woods 

 any day in the year and find plenty of material. 



The best places to collect species infesting wood and bark is along 

 the edge of the woods, or where trees have been girdled or felled a few 

 months previous. Here one will usually find ia the bark of the roots, 

 stumps, main stems, tops, branches, and twigs different stages of many 

 species of bark-beetles and bark-inhabiting larvae, together with their 

 natural enemies and associates; and the wood will yield many more. 



Lumbering regions and sawmill yards are especially prolific in 

 specimens at all times, as are also broken branches, individual trees, 

 and groups injured or killed by insects, felled by storm, or otherwise 

 rendered attractive to insects. During the spring, summer, and fall 

 the foliage will yield specimens almost unlimited in number and variety. 

 But one should remember, as has already been indicated, that it is not 

 the number and variety, but those of most importance, that are to be 

 sought out, noted, collected, and studied. It is often better to spend 

 a day in the diligent search for all that can be found in or on a single 

 tree, or in observing and recording in the notebook all that can be 

 found out about a single species, than merely to collect hundreds of 

 specimens or many species without careful records. 



Indeed, the proper recording of what one sees at the time the obser- 

 vations are made is of the greatest importance, and is the one thing 

 the student should practice more, perhaps, than anything else. 



RECORDING OBSERVATIONS. 



While nearly every entomologist has adopted some system of taking 

 and keeping notes on observations in the field or laboratory which is 

 specially adapted to his own line or method of study, and shows 

 marked peculiarities, there are certain general principles and rules 

 which should be laid down for the consideration and guidance of the 

 student and amateur investigator. 



In collecting specimens and in field observations the notes taken 

 should include the following: The exact locality (the nearest post- 

 office, hill, mountain, or farm); when possible, the elevation and the 

 exposure; the date; the host plant; point of attack; what stages 



