Field Work for Insects and Spiders 69 



INSECTS AND SPIDERS* 



Frank E. Lutz, Curator 



An automobile especially equipped for field work on in- 

 sects and spiders has been one of our evident needs for 

 several years. That need was filled this year 



* e through the generosity of friends contributing 



to the Entomological Fund, and the machine 

 was given a test in a special study of the pine barrens of 

 southern New Jersey by Curator Lutz. It is planned to use 

 it in 1922 for a continuation of the survey west of the 100th 

 meridian. The automobile has an "express" body fitted with 

 removable bunks and lockers for apparatus, specimens, and 

 camp equipment. 



The pine barrens offer very interesting problems in the 

 geographic distribution of species and in the relations of 

 animals to the apparently extreme environmental conditions 

 found in the cold sphagnum bogs and the torrid stretches of 

 open sand. Strangely enough, some of the most northern 

 species there are found on the dryest and hottest of sandy 

 areas. 



Mr. Watson, Assistant in Lepidoptera, left early in Decem- 

 ber for extended work in Haiti. This expedition is made pos- 

 sible by the generosity of Mr. B. Preston Clark and is in 

 continuation of previous work on the insects and spiders of 

 the West Indies. Haiti is particularly interesting because it 

 contains large areas of wild land that have not been ex- 

 plored entomologically. Mr. Watson's work will help to fill 

 the gap between comparatively well-known Cuba, and Porto 

 Rico, the island which we studied recently in connection with 

 the N. Y. Academy of Science's survey. 



Entomologists are fortunate in having a wealth of fasci- 

 nating material at their very doors. The Curator once made 

 ... an off-hand statement that at least five hundred 



different species of insects are to be found in a 

 suburban yard. The statement was challenged, and the Cu- 



* Under the Department of Entomology (see also pages 205 to 207). 



