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Show j Missouri Gets Its 'Hoppers From the East j T jr ASSACIIUSETTS flshworms PfM and Florida grasshoppers " are doing their "bit" for the cause of higher education in Missouri. Each year the University of Missouri imports about 1,500 each of tho flshworms flsh-worms and grasshoppers for use in the zoology laboratories. An additional supply is ordered for distribution to the high schools of the state, Stu'dent collectors, working for tho biological laboratory at Woods Hole, Mass., catch these earthworms by the thousands at night after the spring rains. A good collector will take 1,400 or 1,500 or more in a single night. They are then preserved in alcohol al-cohol and are ready for shipment to school and laboratories over tho country. There are flshworms a-plenty and to spare in Missouri, and at times grasshoppers grass-hoppers arc so numerous as to be a menace to crops. It Is desirable, however, how-ever, for tho cause of sclenco to go to markets ' outside tho state for more. Massachusetts flshworms are four or five times as largo as tho Missouri va riety and, therefore, are much better specimens for the zoological laboratory labora-tory table. It is because of a like difference in size between the Florida grasshopper and his Missouri relative that tho university uni-versity lays itself open to the charge of nonsupport of home insect industries. indus-tries. Measured by Missouri standards, stand-ards, Florida grasshqppevs resemble blrdB In about tho same proportion that Massachusetts flshworms look like snakes. But Florida and Massachusetts do not have a monopoly on this strange Missouri trade. Indiana and Ohio supply the stato university with about 2,000 frogs and tadpoles each year. To tho layman It probbaly seems even more absurd that these creatures should be shipped in than that It should bo necessary to go across several sev-eral states to get worms and "hoppers." "hop-pers." Tho very Idea of shipping tadpoles tad-poles and frogs all the way from Indiana In-diana and Ohio when 'every Missouri mudpuddlo is alive with, them, ho thinks. Kight there he's wrong. Improbable as it may seem, there arc parts of Missouri Mis-souri which do not furnish their full quota in the spring time choir. The region around Columbia, where the state university is located, is such a place. Bull frogs seem to have become be-come wise to the fact that education is now for them, that tho farther they stay from universities and colleges, especially those that have zoology departments, de-partments, the better off they are. In the good old bullfrog days In Missouri, when only a dozen or so students stu-dents took zoology, there were frogs of all kinds and to spare around Columbia. Co-lumbia. But times do change even for frogs, and the biological sciences havo so developed and tho number of students stu-dents so increased that a Columbia frog Is lucky if It becomes a tadpole, not to mention a full-grown, 2-year-old bullfrog. Tho importation of these creatures is not without its disadvantages. A crato of Florida grasshoppers was broken in delivery one time, and 200 bird-like insects scattered to the varl- ous parts of Columbia, much to tho be- wlldermcnt of the natives. For sev- eral weeks, callers were frequent at H the Biology Building attempting to IH explain that the curious creatures they H had caught must be the forerunners of some new and fearful plague. In H tho end, however, Columbians -wore H rid of their fears and the Biology Be- IH partment recovered about fifty of its jH prized insects. By no means all of the biological specimens used in the laboratories are imported. Largo numbers of all J kinds of inhabitants of Boone County ponds and pastures and creeks enter the university to contribute their share to tho cause of higher education. An jH expert technician is employed, whoso duty It is to gather specimens, take jH care of them and prepare them for mu-seums mu-seums and laboratory tables. This man is assisted by the hundreds of bi-ology bi-ology students who go on frequent frogging and bugging expeditions. jH Thrifty boys who think a nickel and the fun compensation enough for a canful of tadpoles or a quarter a fair jJ market price for the family cat are IH also servants of science. jH No pains are' spared in gathering all vM necessary specimens of animal life, and largely for this reason the course in general zoology at the Missouri University is recognized as one of the jJ best In American universities. In the museums and storerooms thousands of inhabitants of the realm of zoology are to be met, from the ameba and his IH microscopic companions to the family of the ape. The zeal for zoological collecting IJ sometimes takes amusing turns. There jH Is a young woman In Columbia who is still wondering what became of her pet cat The last time she saw him he jH was sitting on her caller's knee pur-ring pur-ring sleepily to the strokes of a never IH suspected hand. But there are gains jH 'or all our losses, bue of our poets once said, and. as the story goes at the Biology Building, fair science prof- IH ited by this fair maiden's loss. No one need worry about the treat- IH ment of these biological specimens. As JH long as they are wanted alive they are IH well cared for -and when they are wanted- dead they- are humanely placed in a large wooden pail with a tight-fitting tight-fitting lid and put to sleep by the fra-grance fra-grance of ether. Huge jars of sped-mens sped-mens of all kinds are stored away each summer for use in the regular school months. |
