METAMORPHOSIS 



239 



Acquisition of Material The breeding-cage well made, 

 equipped and in position, the hand-lens and net as ac- 

 companiments for your bright eyes, you are ready to 

 seek young grasshoppers along the roadside, or in the 

 meadows or cultivated fields. Young grasshoppers may 

 be found at any time of the year, but are most common 

 in the early spring. They can be best taken in growing 

 vegetation, such as meadows and pasture-lands, by sweep- 

 ing, and along the roadsides by dropping the net over 

 them. As a means for carrying them from the field to 

 your breeding-cage a pasteboard shoe-box with a V- 

 shaped trap-door cut in the lid is a handy appliance. It 

 is simple, and a very effective means of transportation. 

 When the grasshopper is caught, the apex of the trap- 

 dour is pushed down witli the finger and the insect 

 dropped in. The pasteboard has enough spring in itself 

 to close the opening. 



Care of Breeding-Cages. Grasshoppers are not at all 

 delicate in their tastes, and will adapt themselves 

 greatly to existing circumstances. They prefer, 

 however, the cultivated grasses, cereals, and clover. 

 They also eat readily the leaves of young shoots of 

 peach trees. A number of weeds which grow upon 

 cultivated land are also readily partaken of by these 

 insects; the petals of the opening flowers of the com- 

 mon sunflower are not objected to as a diet by some 

 species of grasshopper. 



Great care and attention should be given to the 

 breeding-cage, and all dry vegetation and grass should be 

 removed daily. It is well, however, to keep in the ca^e 

 all the time a few long stalks of weeds or other vegeta- 



