186 



POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 



. . __ ' ifefc 



GIANT CENTIPEDE. 



There are so many possibilities in exhibiting living in- 

 sects that it is difficult to select groups to feature for the 

 summer. Our efforts were first directed toward exhibiting a 

 series of the different insects that sing, and also a series 

 of species injurious to the interests of the agriculturists, 

 together with a number of the insects that prey upon the 

 noxious species. The collection of singing insects was a 

 marked success and will hereafter be continued each summer. 



"We are gathering from both the Old "World and the New, 

 a fine collection of the larger silk moths. The cocoons will 

 be shown on panels, and inasmuch as a number of the 

 moths will be emerging daily, this exhibit should be instruc- 

 tive. During the winter the insect collection is made up 

 largely of tropical species ; and in this series we include the 

 large bird-killing spiders, scorpions and centipedes, even 

 though these creatures are not to be classified as true insects. 



The collection of singing insects of the past summer was 

 composed of the meadow locust, greater and lesser cone- 

 headed locust, the Katy-did, broad-winged locust, field 

 cricket, lesser field cricket, smooth-winged cricket and two 

 species of the tree crickets. There were about five hundred 

 specimens in the collection, and at times the noise made 

 by them was so great that visitors had to shout to one an- 

 other to make their own voices audible. The sounds coming 

 from this collection varied according to the time of day. 

 It was late in the afternoon, when the larger locusts com- 

 menced their singing (which continued throughout the 

 night), and inasmuch as the strictly diurnal species were yet 

 active, the insect chorus was quite vociferous. 



It is only with considerable difficulty that singing insects 

 are collected. The best time to capture them is at 



