U8 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



kept too dry nor too moist ; if the former, they do not eat 

 readily, and appear not to be able to secrete sufficient silk to 

 make the cocoons ; if the latter, they suffer from diarrhoea. If 

 the right conditions are obtained, it is generally possible to get 

 them to spin up, so here it is that a knowledge of their habits 

 becomes of use, and fortunately the various divisions follow more 

 or less the same manner of pupation. 



To commence with the larger species, the Cimhicides, whose 

 larvae are readily known by their large size (generally over one 

 inch), the colour greenish, with or without green or bluish stripes, 

 and dusted over with a white powdery substance. They fasten 

 their cocoons to the bark of the trees which they frequent, and 

 hence no mould is required in their breeding cages ; they spin 

 them readily enough to the sides, or to the cocoons already formed. 

 Abia, however, pupates in the earth. So also with the Hylotomides, 

 which will spin on the sides of the cages or in moss. 



The Nematides are the easiest of all to rear. They are easily 

 recognised by having only fourteen ventral legs, slender forms, 

 and generally they feed more or less gregariously along the edge 

 of a leaf. They will spin in mould, moss, or cocoa-nut fibre, the 

 last to be preferred as the cleanest, and not so liable to mould. 

 To the larger species (Croesus, etc.) it is desirable to give 

 roomy cages, as they have a habit of throwing the after part of 

 the body about in all directions, and often as many as eight to 

 ten feed on a single leaf. Willow, birch, gooseberry, hawthoru, 

 grasses, are the commonest food j^lants. To this group belong 

 most of the gallmakers, which are not difficult to rear if the galls 

 be kept fresh as long as the inhabitants are feeding. Some of the 

 Nematides change colour at the last moult, throwing oft' all mark- 

 ings, hairs, tubercles, and becoming of a uniform colour. 



The Blennocamjndes are very small, mostly slimy and slug- 

 like, or covered with spines. They aftect willows, oaks, roses, 

 and fruit trees. They spin in the ground. 



The larvae of Emphjius, Taxonus, Poecilosoma, etc., have long 

 slender bodies, 2 2 -footed, and when at rest {Emj^hytus at least) 

 remain sitting rolled up on the under surface of the leaf, with the 

 tail turned up from the centre of the ball. They feed on rosaceous 

 plants as a rule, and it is to be noted that they do not spin cocoons 

 nor go down to the earth to spin, but bore into the jjith of the 

 plant which they frequent, as with EnijjhT/fus cindiis, or if they be 



