NOTES ON A CATERPILLAR FARM. 277 



NOTES ON A CATERPILLAR FARM. 

 By Mrs. W. E. Hart. 



During the last rains in Bombay we started a small caterpillar 

 farm, noting whatever seemed to us worthy of remark in the life his- 

 tory of the insects. Some of these notes we venture to offer in the 

 hope they may interest some of your entomologist readers. Our 

 stock from first to last consisted of eighty- six head of insects, 

 belonging to forty-one species. Being new to the work, we unfortu- 

 nately kept all our specimens in the same enclosure. The result was 

 that, like the twins in Mr. Locker's famous song, they " got com- 

 pletely mixed," and we were unable to say with certainty, in some 

 instances, which imago resulted from which pupa, or, indeed, in the 

 case of some of the buried pupa), to identify beyond a doubt the pupa 

 with its larva. The following notes on twenty-seven cases give the 

 results only of such observations as we are sure are correct throughout. 



But first, as much by way of warning as example to other begin- 

 ners in the same interesting pursuit, we will describe our system. 

 We need not say we shall be very thankful for such suggestions of 

 improvement as any of your readers may kindly trouble themselves 

 to offer. 



Across a window in a well -lighted room we set a table about four 

 feet long by two wide by two and a half high, with an upright rim of 

 thin wood, about two inches high, running all round its top. Its 

 feet stood in saucers of water to prevent the approach of ants and 

 other noxious visitants. But this precaution was not wholly success- 

 ful, as we forgot to clear of other insects all the plants and earth in- 

 troduced for the caterpillars. The result, in one instance, was that 

 the ants so imported devoured alive a caterpillar half turned into 

 a chrysalis, as he was trying to bury himself in a box of earth.* 



* A somewhat similar catastrophe befel a very large caterpillar we had at 

 Matheran in May. He buried himself apparently in good health on 20th W ay. On 

 3rd June about thirty flies were found in the cage. As no imago appeared from the 

 caterpillar, we exhumed him, and discovered that he had very literally been " eaten 

 of worms," which, after making their way out of his abdomen, immediately con 

 structed little cells of the earth round their victim, in which to pass their pupahood, 

 and from which they emerged in the shape of the flies we found in the oage. The 

 caterpillar's carcase, when we found it, consisted of the empty desicoated skin with 

 a mass of earthen cells protruding from its abdominal region in such a manner as to 

 suggest that its late proprietor had burst himself in trying to swallow a mud honey - 

 comb« He must have been " fly-blown " before he buried himself, and carried 

 the eggs with him underground, where the larva) of the flies were hatched inside 

 him and requited his hospitality by devouring him. 



