10 WHY AND HOW WE STUDY BIOLOGY 



to make. Get two plates of glass of the same size, 4X5 inch 

 negatives will do. Cut thin strips of wood, not thicker than the 

 largest specimen you wish to mount, glue to one piece of glass, then 

 fasten your insect in place on the glass with a tiny drop of glue f 

 using, if possible, a bit of the dried plant upon which it was 

 feeding as a part of your mount. The other glass may then be 

 placed on the wooden sides and the whole thing permanently 

 sealed by binding around the edges with bicycle tape or passe 

 partout paper. Life histories of insects can be worked out in such 

 cases and can be handled readily, which makes them very useful in 

 class work. 



An ants' nest. An ant colony makes a fascinating study for the 

 schoolroom. To make a suitable nest take a piece of roofing slate 

 or a flat tile, glue to it pieces of wood about a quarter inch high so 

 as to make an oblong area six by eight inches or larger, with two 

 little openings between the wood strips; get a piece of window 

 glass to fit over it and then place the slate in a shallow tray which 

 will hold water and will make a moat around your colony of ants, 

 which may easily be found under flat stones. Take a small 

 trowel and, when the colony is found, scrape up as many of the 

 eggs, larvae, and ants as possible. Be sure to get one or more of 

 the winged queens by digging down into the nest. Take your 

 colony home in a well-corked bottle, dump the contents into your 

 prepared nest, smooth down the earth, and place the glass over the 

 top. Cover it with a black cloth or some opaque object so as to 

 exclude the light. Within a day or two the life of the colony will 

 be quite normal and you can study the ants at leisure. Feed them 

 from time to time by placing sugar or crumbs of bread just outside 

 the wood strips. 



An insect cage. Frequently we wish to bring living insects into 

 the laboratory in order to study their feeding or other habits. For 

 this purpose an insect cage may be made by taking a shallow flower 

 pot in which earth and some green plant has been placed. Cover 

 this with a lamp chimney having a bit of cheesecloth placed over 

 the top. If the plant within the pot is a food plant and is kept 

 watered, it will be possible to keep the captured insects alive for 

 a considerable period of time. 



