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Entomology for Beginners ~ Free eBook

One of the easiest ways to interest young students in learning seems to be … bugs. For whatever reason, children seem to come with an inexplicable interest in things that creep and crawl. When you are ready to bump it up a notch, Entomology for Beginners will take you from interest to investigation — and it is free!

The author’s aim was to provide a book that would meet several purposes:

Beginners in the study will find in it copious directions for collecting and preserving insects, how to form cabinets, how to mount insects for the microscope, and how to prepare them for study, as well as guides to the literature containing the description of species.

While amateurs and dilettanti entomologists may find useful hints, the needs of those who wish to make a serious study of these animals have not been overlooked, and it is hoped that the book will be of some service in leading such students to pay more attention to the modes of life, transformations, and structure of insects than has yet been done in this country.

The book is also designed as a hand-book for the farmer, the fruit-grower, and the gardener. Besides treating of the elements of the science and the means of ascertaining to what order and family their insect pests belong, the reader is referred to descriptive works and reports for fuller information….

As a first book in entomology it is also designed to be an introduction to the author’s “Guide to the Study of Insects.”

To this end the topics covered include:

The structure of insects.
Life cycle.
Classification.
Architecture.
Beneficial or harmful nature.
Collecting.
Dissecting and mounting.

Talk about a heavily illustrated text! This one will work extremely well for those who enjoy drawing and illustrating. Perfect for creating an insect notebook!

Suggestions

Create a notebooking page for each illustration using Drawing a n d Writing paper.
Narrate in detail what the illustration shows.
The sections are clearly defined. Each section can be an area of study. Have your students narrate what they read.
For example, on pgs. 17–19 the author goes into great detail describing how insects walk. An illustration can be drawn at the top of the page with the written narration following.

At the time of writing, the author stated that the insect world was known to comprise four-fifths of the animal kingdom with over 200,000 species! Plenty to study.