HINTS ON COLLECTING INSECTS. 

 DIP TEE A. 



By S. L. Mosley. 



It is my intention, during the coming season, to devote my energies 

 to some of those classes of insects which do not receive their propor- 

 tionate share of attention from naturalists generally ; and as I should 

 very much like others to walk in the same track, I think a few short 

 hints on collecting and preparing them for the cabinet will not be out 

 of place. I will gladly give such hints as are in my power, and wish 

 I had been better acquainted with the subject, so that I might have 

 done more ; however^ " where there's a will there's a way," and 

 those who have read the life of Thomas Edward will not be afraid to 

 take up a neglected order of insects because there is no one at his 

 shoulder to give him every scrap of information he asks. The best 

 friend and helper is perseverance, and unless a person possesses this 

 quality it is no use trying to earn the name of a true naturalist. 



But space is precious : I must be brief. The apparatus for 

 collecting Diptera are almost precisely those adopted by lepidop- 

 terists. A gauze net for the swift-flying species (as most of them 

 are), a stronger net for sweeping grass, &c., and a good supply of 

 chip boxes, are the principal necessaries for field work. A great 

 variety may be taken on flowers, especially ragwort and dandelion, a 

 lot of these will belong to the Syrphida ; others may be taken about 

 dead animals, as the genus Musca ; others, like the common Scatophaga 

 stercoraria, frequent the neighbourhood of dungheaps. Some are 

 peculiar to woods, and sometimes become a perfect nuisance like the 

 great Tabanus hovinus in the New Forest. Some species are parasitic 

 on birds, the red grouse has one, the swallow has one, two at least 

 live in the fur of bats, and one species only is without wings. Several 

 species may be bred from the larvae of lepidoptera, and it would be 

 well if these were taken care of by lepidopterists whenever they 

 appear. A number of different kinds may be taken during the day 

 on the patches of sugar laid on the trees for moths the previous 

 night. Many which would otherwise be overlooked may be taken by 

 sweeping grass in woods, &c. These sweepings should be put into 

 large chip boxes, and may be killed and examined at home. The leaf 

 miners may be bred, and the best breeding cage I have found is a 

 physic bottle, cut in two with a red-hot poker ; a strip of paper is 

 then pasted several times round the upper half, allowing one-half to 

 overhang the edge of the glass, so that when it is dry it slips on the 



