Chapter XVIII: Introduction (16)

_Icerya purchasi_, known as the “Fluted or Cottony Cushion Scale,” was first described from New Zealand, but had been a well-known pest to the citrus orchards in California many years before it was discovered in New Zealand. The adult female is a very distinctive red coccid with black legs and antennae, and a dull red body with the thoracic portion flattened and fringed with hairs. She produces a quantity of felted woolly filaments forming a mass completely covering the abdomen, which is marked with well-defined parallel furrows and ridges; under this secretion the eggs are deposited. This scale is found upon several species of wattles (_Acacia_) in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and on the roses in the gardens. It does little or no harm in Australia, as it is very much affected by different species of parasites. Several other species placed by Maskell in this Genus have been removed. _Palaeococcus nudata_ is one that he described from Australia on verbenas and cosmos. I found it to be very abundant on red clover in the Lismore district, N.S. Wales; it is a smaller oval species uniformly clothed with mealy secretion. _P. rosae_, described by Riley as _Icerya rosae_, the “Floridian Scale,” is a convex dull brown shining coccid with the outer margin fringed with short white tufts. Though originally described as a rose pest in Florida it is found upon _Hakea_ and _Grevillea_ bushes in the vicinity of Sydney.

170. _Callipappus (Coelostoma) australe_ (Maskell). ♂.

The “Bird of Paradise Fly.”

171. _Callipappus australe._ ♀.

172. _Callipappus australe._ ♀. After egg laying.]

174. _Monophlebus crawfordi_, when she is laying her
eggs, which she covers with felted fluted wool.

(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]

Sub-Order III. ANOPLURA.

Sucking Lice.

These insects are wingless, with a more or less thin integument. The rather complicated sucking mouth is furnished with hooks; the thoracic segments are indistinctly divided, and the foot terminates in a single stout claw. They were usually placed at the end of the HEMIPTERA in the Order PARASITA; but later investigators consider them so very closely allied to the true bugs that they are here placed as a Sub-Order. Burmeister called them PEDICULINA.

Family 1. Sucking Lice.

PEDICULIDAE.

These are purely parasitic upon animals, and derive their food from the blood of their hosts, which they obtain by puncturing the skin with their tubular sucking mouth. It is not an extensive family, containing only about 40 described species included in 6 genera, and they are widely distributed over the world.

Three species are known to live upon the clothes and skin of unclean men, the eggs of which, known as nits, are attached to the hairs of the animal or man infested. From their repulsive habits lice are not popular insects even for entomologists to take up. Nothing is known about those infesting the natives of Australia, though it is believed that the different races of man, particularly savage tribes, are infested with distinct species of these parasites.

The common head louse, _Pediculus capitis_, is confined to the fine hairs of the head, seldom or never going on the coarser hair of the body; the pale-coloured eggs are glued to the hairs, from which emerge larvae closely resembling the adults. _Pediculus vestimenti_ lives in the clothes of unclean persons, only coming on the skin to suck up blood; it differs merely in being darker and broader in general appearance. The Crab-louse, _Phthirius inguinalis_, is a very short-bodied creature which clings with its large claws to the stouter hairs of the body. In ancient times all these were very common, and a loathsome disease called _Phthiriasis_ was said to be due to them. The domestic animals, hogs, cattle, horses, &c., are infested with distinct species.

Sub-Order IV. MALLOPHAGA.

Biting Lice.

The classification in which this group should be placed is not yet definitely settled; Sharp places them in the Order NEUROPTERA between the PSOCIDAE and the TERMITIDAE: Cholodkovsky combines them with the sucking lice and creates a new Order, PSEUDORHYNCHOTA (Zool. Anz. xxvii. 1903); while Kellogg has given them the rank of an Order under the group name MALLOPHAGA.

They are certainly not lace-wings in the strict sense of the word; and their habits are so similar to those of the preceding division that I propose to place them as the fourth group of the Order HEMIPTERA.

They consist of biting lice infesting animals and birds, and feed chiefly upon the hair, feathers, scales, or excretions of their hosts by means of stout biting jaws, but are also said to be furnished with an apparatus enabling them sometimes to suck up the blood. They all have flattened bodies encased in horny integument, lightly clothed with stout hairs; the antenna contains from 3 to 5 short joints, and the eyes when visible are situated behind the antennae; the thorax is narrow, apparently composed of two divisions; the short stout legs are provided with 1 or 2 fine claws well adapted to their parasitic habits. The wings are wanting, and the oval abdomen contains from 9 to 10 segments. They attach their eggs to the hairs or feathers of their hosts, and the larvae develop upon the body.

Though some members of the group might be confounded with the ANOPLURA, they are easily distinguished from them by the structure of the mouth, and the different shaped claws at the extremity of the tarsi. While the sucking lice are always confined to a particular host, the biting lice are not so exclusive, for the same species may be found upon several dissimilar birds or animals, and it is not uncommon for several distinct species to infest the same host.

A number of European writers have studied and described these parasitic creatures; Denny (Monographia Anoplurorum Britanniae 1842) described all the British species, which he illustrated with coloured plates: Piaget’s “Le Pediculines,” Leyden 1880, is a more important work, and was followed by a supplement in 1885; the first contains a description of all the species known up to that date, and the second adds 100 new species which he had examined. Taschenberg in 1882 published a fine Monograph, which however was never completed.

In America the chief writers have been Osborn and Kellogg; the first in Bulletin 7, Division of Entomology U.S. 1891, dealing with “Insects affecting domestic animals, Chapter v., Mallophaga,” figures and describes a large number, among them some new species. Kellogg describes a great many new species (New Mallophaga i., ii., iii., 1886–89, Proceedings California Academy of Sciences, Vol. vi.), and also gives a great deal of information about the structure and classification of these insects. He says: “I propose therefore, in the light of the present position of the Mallophaga as an independent order of insects, to rank the Nitzschian families as sub-orders, the Nitzschian genera as families, and the Nitzschian sub-genera, the genera of the present day writers, as genera.”

In this classification two sub-orders are created, ISCHNOCERA, containing two families, viz.: TRICHODECTIDAE, in which the members have 3 jointed antennae and tarsi with one claw, and found upon animals; and PHILOPTERIDAE, lice with five jointed antennae and two tarsal claws, which infest birds. The second sub-order, AMBLYCERA, also comprises two families, viz.: GYROPIDAE, with four jointed antennae and one tarsal claw, infesting animals; and second the LIOTHEIDAE, with four jointed antennae and two tarsal claws, chiefly found upon birds, but in Australia also found upon marsupials.

There are about 1,000 species of these lice described from all parts of the world, but the genera are few in number. Very little work has been done in Australia on the Mallophaga: Piaget described a species on the wombat for which he created the Genus _Boopia_, naming it _B. tarsata_ (1880). In his Supplement (1885) he described a second on the red kangaroo as _Boopia grandis_; and others on Australian birds, among them _Menopon infumatum_ on the “Laughing Jackass,” and _Menopon pallipes_ on the “Swamp Quail.”

In 1902 (Victorian Naturalist) Messrs. Le Souëf and Buller published two papers dealing with these parasites; the first entitled “Descriptions of some Mallophaga on Australian Birds,” and a second “Descriptions of some new Mallophaga from Marsupials,” illustrated with drawings. They describe the kangaroo louse, _Heterodoxus macropus_, as common upon wallabies and kangaroos in most parts of Australia. The female is a pale chestnut-coloured insect about 1½ lines in length, with the typical conical blunt head, 4-jointed antenna, and elongate oval abdomen fringed with hairs, and barred with black between the segments. The Genus _Boopia_ contains the wombat louse described by Piaget, and three other species found on wallabies. A fifth species, _Latumcephalum macropus_, is also parasitic upon wallabies. The Native Companion or Australian Crane is infested by a species described by these writers under the name of _Lipeurus giganteum_; it is of a uniform dull white colour, with an angular head, and measures ¼ of an inch in length. Three species are found upon the Lyre-bird, namely: _Lipeurus menura_, _Nirmus menura_, and _Menopon menura_. The white ibis has a distinct species, and another is found upon the sulphur-crested cockatoo. The emu is the host of an elongate dark-coloured species measuring up to 2 lines in length; the “Apostle Bird” and the “Rosella” parrot have each a distinct parasite.

_Heterodoxus macropus_ (Le Souëf and Bullen).

(Drawn from the type W.W.F.)]

When these insects are carefully collected probably our fauna will be found to be rich in curious and interesting forms, judging from the number of undetermined species in my own collections. They can be very easily collected in small spirit tubes as soon as the animal or bird is shot, but like the “Louse-flies” they soon leave the dead body, and all sportsmen know this to their cost when carrying their game any distance.

Order IX.--THYSANOPTERA.

These insects are often called PHYSAPODA in allusion to their bladder-shaped feet; but though some are wingless, the name THYSANOPTERA seems much more suitable, for all the typical forms have both pairs of wings beautifully fringed with hair-like filaments, hence the name “fringe-wings.”

Thrips have few affinities with any of the other orders, and their exact position in any system of classification has puzzled most entomologists. The remarkable structure of the mouth, which has been studied by Messrs. Jordan and Garman, appears to consist of a compound of biting jaws and a sucking style. Uzel has figured it in his “Monographie der Ordnung Thysanoptera” 1905, but the exact manner in which they take their food is not yet clearly understood. The integument is very thick and opaque, and the head comes to a cone-shaped point at the mouth adjacent, to the ventral surface of the sternum, so that the complicated structure of the mouth is difficult to study. The eggs are laid upon the food plant, and the young undergoing a series of moults resemble the adult in general form, and the distinction between the larval and pupal forms, though noticeable, is very slight.

The members of this Order sometimes appear in immense swarms and do a great amount of damage to cultivated plants and field crops. They are widely distributed over the world, and many species are cosmopolitan, having been spread with the introduction of their food plants. The group is well represented in Australia by many remarkable and striking species, some of which form distinct galls. This Order contains the single family THRIPIDAE.

Family 1. Thrips.

THRIPIDAE.

These are elongate, black, or brown, with 6 to 9 jointed antennae standing out in front of the head; large eyes; with ocelli (usually absent in the wingless forms). The elongate head comes to a cone-shaped point at the extremity; the mouth consists of a pair of jaws with a pointed style between them. The thorax, as broad or slightly broader than the body, is elongate, and furnished in the typical forms with two pairs of delicate oar-shaped wings with a simple medium parallel vein in the centre of each fore wing, and both pairs fringed with delicate feather-like filaments; both pairs are attached at the base to the dorsal surface of the thorax, and when at rest are folded down the centre of the back. The legs are short and simple, but sometimes the thighs of the front pair are thickened; the tarsi consist of two short simple joints, the last bladder-shaped. The abdomen is slender and is rounded at the extremity, and in one division ends in a slender tubular process. Most of them are minute creatures; the giant among them comes from Australia, but this only measures ½ an inch in length. Though most species are vegetarian in their habits, feeding upon the surface of plants or the pollen of flowers, a few are said to devour mites and other tiny creatures.

Family THRIPIDAE.

1. _Idolothrips spectrum_ (Haliday). Giant thrips.
2. _Thrips tabaci_ (Lindeman). Rose and Onion thrips.
3. _Kladothrips rugosus_ (Froggatt). Gall thrips.
4. _Kladothrips rugosus_ (Froggatt). Larva.
5. 5_a_. 5_b_. Various stages of galls
(_K. rugosus_) on Acacia foliage.]

In Uzel’s Monograph only 135 species are catalogued, half of which are European. Haliday (Entomological Magazine 1836) divided all the known species into two groups or sub-families, viz.: _Terebrantia_, in which the females have an external toothed ovipositor (including all the typical European forms); and the _Tubulifera_, in which the ovipositor is hidden and the tip of the abdomen is produced into an elongated tubular process (most of our indigenous species fall into this latter group).

_Heliothrips haemorrphoidalis_, an introduced species, is our commonest thrips, and is world-wide in its range. It measures about ¹⁄₁₆ of an inch in length, is stout in proportion; has the head and thorax rugose, and is of a uniform black tint with very light-coloured wings. It not only infests and damages a great number of garden plants, but is spreading to our native bushes, for I have taken them on young eucalypts far away from any gardens. The Giant Thrips, _Idolothrips spectrum_, was described by Haliday from specimens collected by Charles Darwin in 1836; he described the sexes as different species; and a smaller dark variety was given a third specific name. It is a very common insect in Eastern N.S.W., hiding among the foliage of dead eucalypts; when disturbed it runs about with its wings and elongated body turned upward in the manner of a small “rove beetle.” It has an extended range from Tasmania to Southern Queensland. I recorded its life-history (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1904), where the different stages of development are figured. Its large size, long antennae, elongated neck-like prothorax, and red spined abdominal segments and tubular appendage are very distinctive characters.

The most remarkable THRIPIDAE however are those that infest many of our forest shrubs, such as _Acacia_, _Hakea_, _Callistemon_, and other scrub trees in Central Australia. These live in galls which they produce by puncturing the edges of the young leaves and causing them to curl over; or by attacking the leaf buds and aborting the tips of the twigs into irregular masses of thin woody galls; or again, the leaf is pierced from the under side by the female thrips, causing the leaf to blister on the upper surface, which gradually expands into an oval or rounded gall as large as a small marble, and into which most of the leaf is often absorbed, leaving only the leaf stalk and the tip, which forms a short tail curving up from the basal scar. Many of these galls are closely packed with small semitransparent larvae and pupae in all stages of development, the offspring of the single female thrips that first caused the gall. Noting this remarkable habit of Australian thrips, so different from that of all other known species, I forwarded specimens and galls to Dr. Sharp, who notes the fact in the Cambridge Nat. Hist.: Insects. It seems apparently to be a case of the survival of the fittest, for in the dry intense summer heat of the interior these delicate insects could not live on the outer surface of the foliage, while, enclosed in these galls, they can survive the hottest and driest season. Species of gall-making thrips have been recorded recently from Java. Uzel described one of these gall-making species, _Phloeothrips tepperi_ (Acta Societatis Entomologicae Bohemiae 1905) from specimens obtained in S. Australia by Tepper, and which form oval galls upon the “Mulga,” _Acacia aneura_. This species is also common in the western parts of N.S. Wales upon the same tree, which also bears two other distinct thrips galls.

I have figured a remarkable rugose gall, obtained near Tamworth, N.S. Wales, upon a short-leaved acacia (Agricultural Gazette N.S.W. 1906); the maker of this gall will not fit into any known genus, and therefore I propose for it the name of _Kladothrips rugosus_. It has an elongate rounded head, with the thighs of the fore-legs greatly thickened and the apex of the tibia produced into two blunt claws.

THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF INSECTS.

A collector’s outfit will vary considerably in different kinds of country, and depend to a certain extent upon the particular group of insects he is interested in. But there are some things he will require on every tramp through the bush. For general collecting the first thing needed is a strong leather bag; a large-sized school bag that can be slung over the shoulder is preferred by some entomologists, as it leaves their hands free; others carry a hand-bag; but a combination of both, with handle and also swivels to which a shoulder strap can be attached, is sometimes used, so that it can be carried either way. I prefer the hand-bag, though it has its disadvantages, and one is that when shaking or sweeping the scrub it is apt to be left behind, and time spent in returning for it; and if the scrub is thick, may have to be searched for. The bag should not be too big, for in a long day’s tramp it becomes a burden, and if string and paper be carried, galls, infested twigs, and foliage can always be made up into a bundle and attached to the bag when an extra good find has been made. Some collectors have the bag divided into compartments or pockets, which are very handy at times for bottles and tubes, but it must be borne in mind that every piece of leather adds weight.

With regard to nets, they must be adapted for the work they are to do; and first in importance comes the butterfly net. If one is in camp a simple net can be constructed with a ring of stout fencing wire, fashioned into a circle with the two ends bent down for about six inches, and tightly lashed to a straight sapling about eight feet in length; round the ring is sewn a strip of stout calico, to which is attached a mosquito net bag about 18 inches long, tapering to a rounded tip, and about 15 inches in diameter; this net is however a fixture and cannot be taken to pieces and folded up for travelling. Where nets can be obtained from dealers’ shops, there are some very neat and handy ones for packing up in small compass, such as the three fold net. The handle, like an ordinary light walking stick, is fitted at the end with a tubular Y; the base of the Y fits on to the handle, and the arm on either side receives the ends of the cane ring; the cane is shod with brass and jointed in three places, and there is a sheath to draw over each joint to form the ring; the net is then slipped on. A short stick is handy for many things; but when necessary a long sapling can be cut for a net-stick.

=Fig. 176.=--Collecting Net for Butterflies showing the
ring fitted into ferrule; and folded up.]

For catching wasps, flies, and other small insects a little hand-net about nine inches in diameter, made of mosquito net and a bit of fencing wire, is much more handy than the large butterfly net. When dragging water-holes or creeks a bag of cheese-cloth placed on the butterfly net ring will be found very serviceable, and will stand much rough use. A stout umbrella will be found one of the most useful collecting appliances when hunting in scrub or forest country. If the bushes are beaten or shaken with one hand while holding the open umbrella below them, the collector will be surprised at the number of fine things, large and small, that come tumbling down into the umbrella, including many that he would never see otherwise. In the dry western scrubs I find the early hours of morning between daylight and eight o’clock to be the best time for beating and shaking, as everything that falls then is more or less torpid; later in the day they begin to get very active and fly off when disturbed. Some collectors go to the trouble of having a special umbrella made of white material or lined with calico, so that the fallen insects can be more easily noticed, but the advantage is slight. Mr. Masters suggests the use of a sheet spread under the bushes, and the whole tree beaten and shaken. This method in suitable country has its advantages.

The killing bottles come next in importance, and the first and most commonly used is the cyanide bottle. An empty 1 oz. quinine bottle makes one of a very serviceable size, but any other light wide-mouthed bottle will answer the purpose. Place a piece of cyanide of potassium about 1½ inches square and ½ an inch in thickness at the bottom of the bottle, and then pour in enough liquid plaster of Paris to embed and cover it; drain off any surplus moisture with blotting paper; and when the plaster is set hard, close the bottle with a tight-fitting cork. It is an advantage to coat the top of the cork with red sealing-wax, so that if it is dropped or left behind, the bright cork will make it more conspicuous. Young collectors may get the insects covered with particles of damp plaster and perhaps spoilt; to prevent this, the plaster should be covered with scraps of paper, moss, dry grass, or some such material, to absorb the moisture and keep the specimens clean. The dead insects should always be turned out of the cyanide killing bottle on returning from a day’s hunt, for if kept long in the bottle they will often become more or less discoloured.

A killing bottle favoured by museum and professional collectors is a similar bottle, but, instead of using cyanide, a pad of cotton wool is placed in the bottom, on to which some chloroform is poured to charge the bottle. But when collecting is brisk and the cork constantly being taken out for fresh captures, the chloroform evaporates, and the bottle must be re-charged at intervals. When one is collecting different kinds of small specimens it is advisable to carry several small tubes charged with chloroform, and if a circular pad of blotting paper be carefully cut and pressed down on the wadding, the little creatures will not get their legs and antennae tangled in the fibre of the cotton. If delicate winged insects remain long in the moist atmosphere of the tube, their wings stick to the sides or curl up, so that it is wise to turn them out every now and then into pill boxes carried for the purpose, and any special treasures should be rolled up in soft paper. At one time most English entomologists used chopped laurel leaves in the bottle instead of cyanide; this foliage gives off a certain amount of hydrocyanic acid vapour, sufficient to kill insects, at the same time keeping them clean and relaxed so that they are easily mounted.

In which a piece of cyanide of potassium is placed, and then
covered with plaster of Paris.]

The collector’s bag should contain several empty tins of all shapes and sizes, to carry the hundred and one things found in a day’s collecting, such as live larvae, cocoons, galls, eggs, &c. When hunting for small moths the lepidopterist always carries a pocket full of small glass-bottomed boxes; the glassed portion is used to slip over the resting moth, which, when disturbed, at once flies upward to the glass, and the lid of the box is slipped under. These delicate little creatures are taken home alive, and can be killed in a jar and mounted while quite fresh. A stock of small tubes containing methylated spirit can be packed in one of the empty tins; these are very necessary to keep separate from one another specimens of ants, termites, or other insects taken direct from their nests. On a long trip one also wants a larger bottle or jar of spirit in which scorpions, millepedes, centipedes, and such-like creatures can be stored.

=Fig. 180.=--Butterfly set upon corked and grooved board
to show the process of mounting.]

When timber is found infested with beetle or moth larvae, it should be secured and brought home, where it can be placed in a tin trunk, glass jar, or proper breeding cage and the perfect insects bred out. When engaged at this very profitable work a small hatchet and hand saw are needed to cut the branches. At all times a stout old butcher’s-knife should be among the kit, as it is useful for digging round the roots of trees and under logs, tearing bark off tree trunks, and if it be jagged on one edge will make a rough saw. A newspaper or two is handy for many things, among others to make envelopes in which to place butterflies.

Specimens collected in camp must be kept in good condition until they can be properly mounted at home; in a dry country this is not difficult, but in the wet season in a semi-tropical climate both botanical and entomological specimens are very liable to damage.

Most collectors put all the hard-bodied insects such as beetles into a wide-mouthed jar of methylated spirits, where they will keep indefinitely, but any beetles that are clothed with fine hairs or floury pubescence should be carefully pinned in a box, and, unless very large, will dry quickly. Some entomologists place their captures of this kind in clear carbolised sawdust in tins or jars: I have packed small specimens in circular tins in the following manner:--First a layer of camphor covered with a circular sheet of blotting paper fitting close into the tin, then the insects fresh from the killing tubes, and after sprinkling the insects with camphor a layer of blotting paper, and so on. Thus many thousands of micro-coleoptera, hemiptera, &c., could be securely packed and added to day by day until the tin was full, when a wad of cotton wool was placed on the last sheet of paper, and the tin put aside or posted to its destination.

With regard to butterflies, the collector can generally see whether they are good or damaged specimens as soon as they are taken out of the net; if the latter, he should let them go (unless unique or rare forms), for an imperfect or rubbed butterfly is comparatively valueless. If it be a perfect specimen, the wings should be folded together over the back, and a sharp nip on the thorax between the fingers will kill it in a moment. Each specimen should be placed in a folded paper envelope, made by crossfolding an oblong piece of soft paper in the shape of a triangle and folding down the overlapping edges. Packed side by side, a square tin will hold hundreds of these paper envelopes, which can be stored in this manner indefinitely or till the collector is ready to relax and set them. Thousands of butterflies are sent in these papers from all parts of the world to London for sale, and are usually disposed of at so much per hundred.

Moths cannot well be treated in this manner on account of the thickness of their bodies and the looseness of the scales upon their wings; they have therefore to be pinned in a corklined box as they are collected, but later on can be relaxed and their wings set as with the butterflies. When we come to the tiny moths known as MICRO-LEPIDOPTERA, we find they require special treatment, and most lepidopterists take a box fitted with narrow setting boards, when out for a few days, and set their captures every evening before they become stiff, for otherwise many make very unsatisfactory specimens.

In collecting HYMENOPTERA the different groups need special treatment; and where there are several sexes dissimilar in size and structure they should be carefully kept together. Ants are always best collected from their nest, and a number of specimens of the different sexes secured and placed in a tube of methylated spirits. The locality and date should be written with a hard lead pencil upon a slip of paper and placed in the tube with them. A series can afterwards be sorted out and mounted, the large ones on pins and the smaller on gummed card. Wasps should be pinned, and when the forms with wingless females (Thynnidae and Mutillidae) are obtained _in copula_, a very common state in midsummer, they should be captured and killed together and the paired insects mounted with a check mark on each pin beside the locality and date label, so that no mistake can be made as to their identity.

The bulk of the HEMIPTERA will with their hard integument carry well in spirit or carbolised sawdust. Some of the more delicate of the HOMOPTERA, such as the Psyllidae, Aphidae, and Coccidae (Scale insects), should be collected with their food plant. They can be obtained in various stages of their development; the perfect insects can be bred in confinement upon their food plants. They should be mounted on card when fresh, but, if not, can be placed in the camphor tin or even a dry tube plugged with cotton wool, but if the tube be corked they will spoil, owing to the moisture generated within the tube. In the case of scale insects, portions of the leaves, bark, or twigs infested with the tests of the injects can be cut to a uniform size and mounted with gum or small pin on card, and if mounted carefully make very neat specimens. Many of the larger HOMOPTERA, such as cicadas, fulgorids and frog-hoppers, can be mounted, with the wings outspread, but should not go into spirits.

ORTHOPTERA, particularly the large phasmids, are very unsatisfactory creatures to deal with when captured; often too large to go into a killing bottle, they have to be brought into camp alive. If a female, it may be kept a while to lay its eggs, as they are very interesting objects. The eggs can be mounted on card or placed in a small pill box and pinned beside the insect in the box. These insects, as well as all large grasshoppers, should be cut down the abdomen on the under side and the contents removed with forceps; a little paris green should then be sprinkled inside or some weak corrosive sublimate applied with a brush; then a wad of cotton wool should be pushed into the cavity to give shape to the empty body when it dries. In the case of the larger cockroaches, which are often very brittle when cleaned and dried, a bit of sheet cork instead of cotton wool can be shaped for a false body, coated with gum and slipped in; when pinned through the cork it makes a very firm specimen. Some collectors mount their grasshoppers and other orthoptera with the wings outspread, and as show specimens they look best, but take up a great deal of room; others mount the wings on one side, and leave the others folded down in their natural condition in repose, so that some idea is given of the natural form, and the outspread wings can also be examined for specific differences. In collecting phasmids and stick insects for transmission by post or packing in small space, the best plan is to get a slender stick and lay the insect along it with outstretched legs and folded wings, and then wind soft worsted thread round it from end to end; it can be unwound and mounted properly when received at its destination. Orthoptera should not be put into spirit with other specimens, as they lose their colour, become soft, and break up easily; they will however travel well in a 5 per cent. solution of formalin; this has a hardening effect and only alters the colour slightly unless the insects are kept in it for a considerable time. If kept in formalin for say a week and then packed in sawdust they will not rot or spoil as they often do when killed and packed before they are dried.

NEUROPTERA are delicate creatures, and many of them keep best if killed and placed in papers as in the case of butterflies, unless there is room to pin them in a store box. The bodies of the dragon-flies rot very quickly and break off very easily; if carefully handled they can be placed _alive_ in papers with their wings folded over their backs, and will remain alive for several days, long enough to travel a considerable distance by post when dispatched direct to a specialist, who will then receive them with their natural colours. If kept in the store box it is advisable to impale the slender body with a bristle or grass stem, inserting it at the front of the thorax and pushing it through to the tip of the abdomen, but not far enough to injure the anal appendages. Many specimens can be pinned in the store boxes with the wings closed, and relaxed and mounted with outspread wings months afterwards.

DIPTERA is another group that requires delicate manipulation, particularly such species as “daddy-long-legs” (_Tipulidae_), mosquitoes (_Culicidae_), &c. When Skuse was collecting he always carried a pocket-box containing pinned card slips of various lengths, and a tube of gum, and, after killing the insects in a chloroform tube, he mounted them at once while they were flexible and the legs not detached. Theobald mounts his mosquitoes on fine pins, which are pushed from beneath through a circular piece of cardboard (these circular cards are stamped out with a wad-cutter); the legs are spread out and an ordinary pin pushed through the circle to pin them in a cabinet. The larger flies are pinned dry in the ordinary manner, and the smaller ones are carded.

* * * * *

ANIMAL PARASITES, which belong to quite a number of groups, are obtained on the live birds or mammals as soon as they are shot. When the animals are dead the parasites leave the bodies as soon as they begin to get cold. They should be transferred at once to small spirit tubes, in which should also be placed a slip of paper upon which is written in lead pencil the name of the mammal or bird upon which it was taken, the date of capture, and the locality.

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LAMP AND NIGHT COLLECTING.--In suitable localities a great haul of insects can often be obtained on a warm sultry summer night by laying a sheet on the ground with a powerful lamp on it and hanging another sheet behind the lamp; the insects are attracted to the light, and falling on the sheet are then easily captured. In camp many fine insects may be obtained round the lamp or camp fire; and during the wet seasons in North Queensland and the north coast of Australia I have taken many rare insects in this manner.

SUGARING is greatly practised in Europe; a suitable spot in a forest being chosen, a mixture of sugar and beer that have been boiled together is smeared upon the tree trunks and fences; at night-fall the ground is visited with a bull’s-eye lantern, and the insects (moths chiefly) that come to feed are captured, sometimes in great numbers. This has been tried by our collectors in Australia; but I have never had any success myself nor heard of anyone here who has had better fortune.

TRAPPING.--When settled down in a fixed collecting camp many beetles and other insects can be obtained by trapping. If in brush or forest land a number of empty jam or milk tins with the tops cut neatly off are buried, with the edges level with the surface of the ground, many carnivorous ground beetles tumble in, and will be found there on going round in the morning. If a bone or bit of meat be placed at the bottom of the trap, it often attracts certain beetles that feed on such food. In the same manner a dead bird or small animal half buried in the ground, or placed under a sheet of bark or log, will prove an attractive bait for the burying beetles and other curious and often rare species; a dead animal should therefore be always investigated by the beetle hunter, as it often hides entomological treasures.

Fallen timber always has a great attraction for all bark-feeding weevils, longicorns, and other small wood-borers that come to it as soon as the bark begins to wither. Here also come Cleridae, Antribidae and other carnivorous beetles to feed upon the smaller wood-borers, and many an hour can be profitably spent over a large fallen tree or bit of brush a few days after it has been chopped down, particularly in the tropical scrubs. Slicing the bark of living trees that exude any sap, and letting the bark hang down, attracts insects that feed on the sap or take shelter under loose bark; a number of such blazed tree trunks round a camp is a great source of revenue, particularly in the summer.

There are many other devices that the collector will only gain by experience in the field, which will enable him to obtain many curious specimens that a novice would never find.

MOUNTING, SETTING, AND STORING.--Having collected specimens, the next question is the storage of the insects. All entomological specimens (other than those kept in spirit tubes) must be preserved in close-fitting boxes lined with cork, linoleum, or other suitable substance, and the lining covered with clean white paper pasted over it. Many different kinds of store boxes are used by entomologists who cannot afford the luxury of cabinets; most of them are made of deal, with hinges in the centre; the two sides of the box fold together, fitting closely over a rim along the inner edge of one half; and they are fastened with two hooks on the outside. These English boxes made of light pine can be obtained in Sydney; they fit beautifully and are much lighter than the local ones made of kauri, but are slightly dearer. To make a useful store box, nail down the lid of a large-sized cigar box (cleaning, sandpapering, and varnishing it); cut the box through the centre with a fine saw, and then fit a projecting rim into one half with wood from another cigar box, so that the two halves fit close together over the rim without needing catches. This is handy only for a temporary store box, as it is rather difficult to get the two halves to fit accurately, and when made is rather small and deep.

Specimens should be pinned or mounted on cards on a uniform plan; nothing looks worse than insects mounted in different styles. Except the smaller specimens, beetles and other insects should be pinned, and the most serviceable pins are perhaps Kirby, Beard and Co.’s Nos. 1 and 5, though there are several useful intermediate sizes. When an insect is too delicate to pin with either of these, mount it on card, for more insects are lost or damaged through mounting with slender pins that refuse to stick into the cork, and curl up or buckle in the middle, than in any other manner. There are however many professional naturalists who always use the soft, slender, very fine, Continental pins, but they require very delicate handling, and are not suitable for the general collector. There is a great difference of opinion as to how insects should be set and pinned; many, particularly English naturalists, advocate low setting, while most of our collectors set all insects high, as the insects when thus pinned are raised well above the bottom of the box, and their legs and antennae are not so liable to get broken; all mites, dust and dirt will be noticed at once; and the name affixed beneath can be read without removing the insect. In the case of low setting, the insects are resting on the floor of the box; they are liable to damage with the least bump; anthrenus and mites can feed away under cover without being seen until the remains of the infested specimen fall apart; the insect has to be lifted up every time to see its name; while the locality and date-label is always liable to fall off. My standard height (first suggested to me by Mr. Masters to use when working in the Macleay Museum, Sydney) is the lid of a wax matchbox, which is about ¾ of an inch. A small hole is pierced through the centre of the lid; the beetle is placed on the top of the lid, and the pin pressed through it and the hole in the lid until the point touches the table beneath. The pin, in the case of a beetle, should be pushed through the upper half of the elytron (wing cover) on the right-hand side when the head is facing the same way as the person mounting, the pin coming out on the under surface between the middle and hind legs. The antennae and legs may be arranged with pins, but, during the season in Australia, insects are so plentiful that there is not always time to more than roughly open them out.

In the case of insects too small to pin, they are carded. Sheets of the best white cardboard (little thicker than that of a visiting card) are cut into neat strips of uniform width and length for different specimens. No. 1 pins are run through the cards at one end to bring the under side of the card the same height up the pin as the under surface of the directly pinned insect. To give the little card mounts a finished appearance the card used in my collections is ruled with a double line of red ink, the first thick and the inner line fine; each strip of card is cut along the thick red line, and the pin is pushed through the red band. Where one has more than a single specimen, two or more can be mounted side by side on the same card, with their legs and antennae neatly set out, one with the dorsal surface uppermost, and the second one gummed with the reverse side upward, so that the specific characters of both sides of the insect can be examined without having to remove the specimen from the card.

Moths, butterflies, cicadas, lace-wings and other large winged insects when fresh, or after they have been relaxed, are pinned down on setting boards; the body should rest in the parallel groove down the centre of the board, and the wings should be opened out and strapped down on either side with braces of paper or cardboard. The wings should be expanded in a natural manner, and so that the whole of the venation and beauty of the wings are shown. A setting board is simply a strip of soft pine wood with two sheets of cork gummed on the upper surface, with a groove between them to receive the body; fine white paper is pasted over the whole of the board. They are made of various sizes to suit both large and small moths. Most of the old setting boards had the cork rounded so that the wings drooped downwards; afterwards many used them with the outer side turning upward so that the wings were raised at the extremities; those in general use now are perfectly flat.

All these insects are easily relaxed by placing them between damp blotting paper on the top of some wet sand in a plate, and covering them over with a bell glass or similar vessel; within twenty-four hours they are limp enough to be pinned and their wings opened out without any danger.

NUMBERING AND LABELLING.--Every specimen, as soon as it is mounted, should have a small label attached to the pin; this can be written with a fine-pointed pen on small slips of paper as distinctly as possible, with the exact locality in which the insect was collected, the date of capture, the name or initials of the collector, and the food plant when known. It is however sometimes better to pin a second slip below for the food plant and a distinctive catalogue number. Every young naturalist starting a collection should have consecutive numbers on each series of specimens he collects, and keep a note-book or stock register, in which to enter any information about the insect bearing the number. These notes in the course of time will become more and more valuable, and give an added value to the collection. Many young naturalists may think of labels only as a record of the collector’s name, but the locality and food plant are the important points, and to the working entomologist a collection of Australian insects without any such records have lost half their value. The label is placed on the top of the matchbox lid, and the pin bearing the specimen is pushed through to bring the label about halfway between the specimen and the point of the pin, which allows of the label being easily read, and when uniformly placed adds to the neat appearance of the collection. I have mentioned a matchbox lid as a standard height for mounting specimens, but when constantly at work something more solid is required. Take a small block of soft deal wood about 4 inches in length by 2 in width, and just under ¾ of an inch in height; bore two or three holes through it at one end, tack a sheet of white cardboard over the top, and above this at one end tack a slip of cork 1½ inches in width; then make holes through the cardboard above the holes bored in the deal block, and you have an excellent mounting table to work upon.

An entomologist does not require much apparatus after his boxes and setting boards, but one indispensable article is a pair of strong entomological forceps with curved tips; the curved extremities allow of the pin being gripped below the insect when fixing it in or lifting it out of the box. These in the hands of an expert are as good as an extra pair of fingers, both for moving about specimens and picking up pins. A second fine-pointed pair of forceps is useful for handling specimens when mounting, or for picking up small active insects under logs and stones. Two needles mounted in pen handles are invaluable for arranging the legs and antennae when being set. Fine-pointed paint brushes for cleaning dust and dirt from the insects are used; and a pair of pointed scissors are necessary for opening the large-bodied insects, cutting mounting cards, labels and such-like. A pocket lens should be always at hand, for without it one loses half the beauty and details of structure, and it would often be difficult to classify the specimens. Later on, the entomologist will find a dissecting microscope, which leaves both hands free to work, an indispensable part of his outfit. A bottle of gum is another requisite, and different recipes are given in manuals on the subject; at one time a mixture of tragacanth gum was generally used, but the great objection to its use is that, though very fine and transparent, it is very difficult to remove from the specimen when necessary to remount or to detach it for examination. The mixture now generally used is made of clean lumps of gum arabic dissolved in water to the consistency of thin honey, with a little ground lump sugar added; a few drops of carbolic acid are added, which, though apt to discolour it if much is used, will keep the mixture sweet, and prevents mould getting on the specimens. The gum should always be kept corked to prevent dust being introduced, which would show very readily on the mount.

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CARE OF COLLECTIONS.--After the collections are formed, the insects pinned, labelled, and placed in their natural groups, one’s work is by no means finished; thousands of valuable specimens, and even types, have been irretrievably damaged or completely destroyed from want of a little care in preserving them from mites and museum beetles (_Anthrenus_). The specimens may be perfectly clean and stored in close-fitting boxes, and yet later may become infested, by the addition of specimens that have been in an infested collection. It is advisable to keep a receiving box in which to place exchanged specimens for some time before setting out in the collections; as a general rule a collector eagerly adds any new specimen to his collections, and so at the same time may introduce _Anthrenus_, often in the egg state, whose little hairy larvae will rapidly destroy his insects. Some collectors contend that they can preserve their specimens from the attacks of museum pests by dipping them in a very weak solution of corrosive sublimate in spirits of wine; but this can only be effectively done in the case of beetles and other hard-bodied creatures, for it must be remembered that this chemical is apt to affect the metallic and bright-coloured tints of the specimens, and will even corrode the pins. Camphor and napthaline kept in a muslin bag or cell in the corner of the insect box will poison the air and certainly kill all mites, and will keep some pests out; but _Anthrenus_ are able to live in this poisoned atmosphere, and will still carry on the work of destruction. Having once found _Anthrenus_ among the specimens, no time should be lost before destroying them: a wad of cotton wool should be pinned in the corner of the box, and chloroform or bisulphide of carbon poured over it, and the box kept closed for about twenty-four hours, when it should be again opened, all dead _Anthrenus_ shaken out, the remains of damaged insects removed, and the most injured specimens (if common) burnt. Another method when _Anthrenus_ are found is, to hold the open box or drawer in front of the fire for a few moments, when the pests, even if feeding within the insects, will wriggle out and can be destroyed. When once a box has been infested it will require constant attention for months after.

MOULD is also difficult to get rid of when once it appears in a box. If all insects are well dried before they are placed in the boxes, and the boxes kept in a dry place, there should be no mould among the contents, but if a few damp or mould-infested insects be placed in a clean box the mould may spread and eventually affect the whole collection, especially if the room is inclined to be damp. When mould appears, the affected insects should be cleaned with a brush dipped in benzine, and a few drops of carbolic acid should be poured on a piece of cotton wool in the box.

GREASE is often a great trouble to the collector. Many of the large wood-moths, particularly the bodies, sometimes get into a very bad state if not cleaned out thoroughly; and also on old specimens of beetles the grease develops verdigris, corroding the pins. Soaking all such specimens in benzine will soften the grease so that it can be rubbed off with a soft brush.

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS AND TYPES.

The type of a species is the actual specimen from which the published description has been drawn up by the entomologist; and the care and safe custody of such types should be the aim of every naturalist and museum curator. In the case of insects, they are often such delicate creatures that the type is very easily destroyed or damaged, either by careless handling, bad storage, or from the attacks of museum mites and pests; and at the present time, since many insect types have been thus lost or destroyed, often doubt exists as to which particular insect in the group is the species defined by the author, especially where the written description, as in many cases, is brief or incomplete. Many large private collections have been made by entomologists in which there are numbers of types either described by the owner, or of specimens he has obtained and submitted to specialists. Some of these collections have afterwards been broken up, sold, and distributed, so that it is now very difficult to trace the whereabouts of many types that do exist. Every year brings more independent entomologists into the ranks of the describers, so that our insects are being described in all parts of the world; and though the importance of types is much better understood than it used to be, the ultimate resting place of many of these types is very uncertain.