THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 84.] SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1858. [Price id. 
Maple Leaf rained by tlie Larva of Lithocolletis Sylvella. 
See p. 43. 
STRATAGEMS. 
In llie ‘Intelligencer’ of last season 
(vol. ii. pp. 174 and 191) a learned 
writer was eloquent upon the subject 
of setting traps for the smaller Cole- 
optera, and it is very possible that 
much has yet to be done in the way 
of stratagem before every means has 
been exhausted of enriching our col- 
lections. 
The following, though stated as a 
fact, is doubted by many of our 
readers, aud we should be glad to 
hear from any Coleopterist who has 
tried the plan and found it answer: — 
“ A rather curious advantage has been 
taken of the insect-eating propensities 
of the toad. A gentleman had killed a 
toad at a very early hour one morning, 
and after skinning it, for the purpose 
of stuffing the skin, he dissected its 
digestive system. The contents of the 
stomach he turned out into a basin of 
water, and found there a mass of in- 
sects, some of them very rare and in 
good preservation. Afterwards he was 
accustomed to kill toads for the ex- 
press purpose of collecting the insects 
that were found within them, aud 
which, being caught during the night, 
were often of such species as are not 
often found. The same experiment 
elicited another curious fact, namely, 
the great tenacity of life possessed by 
some insects. Before pinning out the 
insects that were found, and which 
were mostly beetles, they had been 
allowed to remain in the water for 
o 
