Collecting and Rearing Insects 639 
preservation. Nests, galls, stems, and leaves partly eaten by insects, and 
other dry specimens can be kept in small pasteboard boxes. 
Where and how to collect.—The principal points about where and how 
to collect will be obvious even to the veriest novice. Go where the insects 
chiefly congregate, and collect them in the most effective way. But some of 
the insect haunts may not be known to the beginner nor at first catch his 
eye, and there are little tricks about collecting in the most effective way. 
“The most advantageous places for collecting are gardens and farms, the 
borders of woods, and the banks of streams and ponds. The deep, dense 
forests and open, treeless tracts are less prolific in insect life. In winter 
and early spring the moss on the trunks of trees, when carefully shaken 
over a newspaper or white cloth, reveals many beetles and Hymenoptera. 
In the late summer and autumn, toadstools and various fungi and rotten fruits 
attract many insects; and in early spring, when the sap is running, we have 
taken rare insects from the stumps of freshly cut hard-wood trees. Wollaston 
says: ‘Dead animals, partially dried bones, as well as the skins of moles 
and other vermin which are ordinarily hung up in fields, are magnificent 
traps for Coleoptera; and if any of these be placed around orchards and 
inclosures near at home, and be examined every morning, various species 
of Nitidulae, Silphidae, and other insects of similar habits, are certain to be 
enticed and captured.’ 
“ Planks and chippings of wood may be likewise employed as successful 
agents in alluring a vast number of species which might otherwise escape 
our notice; and if these be laid down in grassy places, and carefully inverted 
every now and then with as little violence as possible, many insects will be 
found adhering beneath them, especially after dewy nights and in showery 
weather. Nor must we omit to urge the importance of examining the under 
sides of stones in the vicinity of ants’ nests, in which position, during the 
spring and summer months, many of the rarest of our native Coleoptera 
may be occasionally procured. Excrementitious matter always contains 
many interesting forms in various stages of growth. 
“ The trunks of fallen and decaying trees offer a rich harvest for many 
wood-boring larvae, especially the Longicorn beetles; 
and weevils can be found in the spring, in all stages. 
Numerous carnivorous coleopterous and dipterous 
larvae dwell within them, and other larvae which eat 
the dust made by the borers. The inside of pithy 
plants, like the elder, raspberry, blackberry, and 
syringa, is inhabited by many of the wild bees, Osmia, Ceratina, and the 
wood-wasps, Crabro, Stigmus, etc., the habits of which, with those of their 
Chalcid and Ichneumon parasites, offer endless amusement and material for 
study. 
Fig. 806. —Water - net. 
(After Packard.) 
