Collecting and Rearing Insects 647 
scavenger beetles; back-swimmers; water-boatmen; dragon-fly and May-fly 
nymphs; mosquito larvae, etc. 
Other animals may of course be kept in the aquarium. Common pond- 
snails will live easily, feeding on green slime, roots of water-plants, bits of 
cabbage, etc.; minnows will eat bits of fresh meat, and also the insects; 
quarrelsome little sticklebacks will eat the pond-snail eggs and small crusta¬ 
ceans, as cyclops, etc.; frog and salamander larvae feed at first on vegetable 
matter, later on bits of meat, tiny earthworms, mosquito larvae, etc. 
Remember that an aquarium needs daily care to keep it in good condition 
The foregoing account of collecting, preserving, and rearing insects has 
been made short and only a general course of procedure indicated, with the 
hope in mind of avoiding the confusion to the beginner likely to result from 
a longer account, including many “specialties” and refinements in collect¬ 
ing methods. Numerous excellent extended directions for collecting, pre¬ 
serving, and rearing have been published. Two such accounts are those 
by Comstock in “Insect Life” (Appletons), pp. 284-335, and by Packard in 
“Entomology for Beginners” (Holt & Co.), pp. 224-288. 
