272 



INSECT LIFE. 



turn in a few minutes to their position of patient 

 watchfulness, and here they wait like a still fisher- 

 man on a log. 



The habits of these larvae can be observed in a 

 schoolroom in the following manner : — 



1. Take a box about eight inches deep, and half 

 fill it with sand or fine earth, and pour some water 

 on the soil so that it shall become packed firmly. 



2. Collect several tiger-beetle larva2. In doing 

 this put a stalk down the burrow so that it shall not 

 become filled with dirt, and thus lost while you are 

 digging the larva out. Put each Jarva collected in a 

 single vial, so that they can not injure each other. 



3. With a slender stick or a slate pencil make 

 holes in the soil in your box, one or two inches deep 



and about as wide as burrows of tiger- 

 beetle larvae, and put a larva in each. 



4. Observe the way in which the lar- 

 vae deepen these holes, and fit them for 

 their use. 



5. When the larvae have become well 

 established in their new burrows, scatter 

 sugar on the surface of the soil so as to 

 attract flies. 



6. Make notes on the habits of tiger- 

 beetle larvae, and write an account of 

 them. 



INSECTS OF GOLDENROD. 



In late summer and in the autumn the 

 yellow blossoms of the goldenrod attract 

 swarms of insects of various kinds ; at 

 this season there is no better field for the collector than 

 the clumps of this plant growing in the fence corners. 



Fig. 246. 

 Goldenrod, 

 Solidago. 



