EGGS AND LARV.E : BREEDING AXD I1KA11IXG. 



311 



some of which are otherwise very difficult to secure. The bar- 

 rels should be placed in a covered spot in the open air, and the 

 twigs and wood occasionally lightly moistened with water. The 

 larvae of leaf-eating beetles 

 may be bred as the larvae 

 of lepidoptera. The larva 1 

 of neuropterous insects, 

 such as Myrmeleon, may 

 be easily reared in boxes 

 at the bottom of which 

 sand to the depth of six 

 inches has been placed. 

 They may be fed with 

 house-flies which have 

 been deprived of their 

 wings, and soft bodies of 

 coleopterous larvae, and the 

 larvae of ants. The larvae 

 of the Odouata and aquatic 

 beetles must be reared in 

 aquaria in which there is 

 a muddy bottom pro- 

 vided, and in which there 

 are a few pieces of rot- 

 ting wood, with loose 

 bark upon it, so that they 

 protrude some inches 

 above the surface of the 

 water, and in which 

 aquatic plants are kept 

 growing. Many aquatic insects pupate under the bark of trees 

 growing at the edge of the water. 



The breeding of the larvae of lepidopterous insects has re- 

 ceived far greater attention than that of other insects, and many 

 modifications of devices for this purpose have been suggested. 

 The simplest devices are often the bes!:, arid in the early stages 

 of the smaller forms the best plan is to pot a specimen of the 

 appropriate food-plant, when it is low and herbaceous and 

 capable of being thus treated, and then put it under a cover of 



FIG. 86. Breeding Cage. (After Kiev.) a, Bottom 

 board ; g <j, battens to prevent warping ; //, zinc pan 

 four inches deep; d, zinc tube pokkrecl to bottom of 

 pan and intended to hold jar of water for fooil-p'ant- : 

 f, earth in pan ; />, box with glass sides and hin<red 

 door ; c, removable cap of box covered with wire gauze. 



