248 ENTOMOLOGY. 



plant of the larva may be stuck and kept fresh for several 

 days. In rearing from the egg, says Scudder, the greatest 

 difficulty is during early life ; young caterpillars must have 

 the freshest and tenderest food and not too much confine- 

 ment. With all precautions many will be lost, for they are so 

 small that it is difficult to keep track of them, and some are 

 very prone to wander when their food does not suit them. 

 They are best reared in some open vessel covered with gauze, 

 with the growing plant, placed in the light, but not in the 

 sun. Most caterpillars change to pupae in the autumn; 

 and those which transform in the earth should be covered 

 with earth, kept damp by wet moss, and placed in the 

 cellar until the following summer. The collector in seek- 

 ing for larvae should carry a good number of pill-boxes, and 

 especially a close tin box, in which the leaves may be kept 

 fresh for a long time. The different forms and markings 

 of caterpillars should be noted, and they should be drawn 

 carefully together with a leaf of the food-plant, and the 

 drawings and pupa skins, and perfect insect, be numbered 

 to correspond. Descriptions of caterpillars cannot be too 

 carefully made, or too long. The relative size of the head, 

 its ornamentation, the stripes and spots of the body, and 

 the position and number of tubercles, and the hairs, or 

 fascicles of hairs, or spines and spinules, which arise from 

 them, should be noted, besides the general form of the 

 body. The lines along the body are called dorsal if in the 

 middle of the back; subdorsal if upon one side; lateral 

 and ventral when on the sides and under surface; or stig- 

 matal if including the stigmata or breathing-pores, which 

 are generally parti-colored. Indeed, the whole biography 

 of an insect should be ascertained by the observer; the 

 points to be noted are: 



1. Date when and how the eggs are laid; and number, 

 size, and marking of the eggs. 



2. Date of hatching, the appearance, food-plant of larva, 

 and number of days between each moulting; the changes 



