26 HUNTING AMONG THE 



of all kinds may be collected and their life-history thoroughly 

 investigated by one person with the expenditure of very little time 

 and trouble. It is truly wonderful how much may be done with a 

 single newspaper spread under a pollard oak or even a hedge. In 

 the spring every few days bring signs of fresh larvae having been 

 hatched. And when it is remembered that the life-history of 

 many of these is very imperfectly known, an endless field for 

 interesting and useful work is opened up to every one who has the 

 true love of nature at heart, and is not satisfied to simply accu- 

 mulate specimens for his cabinet. Another method of capturing 

 larvae is to beat or shake hedges, bushes, etc., over an open 

 umbrella. This method, however, if carried out to any great 

 extent, tends to ruin a neighbourhood entomologically, as in the 

 process many ova and minute larv?e are destroyed. 



I now come to the method for taking Lepidoptera in the 

 pupa state, and as some of you may not have studied this branch 

 of natural history to any extent, I thought it might be of interest 

 if I brought specimens of the pup?e of each of the great divisions 

 of Macro-lepidoptera. On the table you will find pupae of the 

 following : — 



Svierinthus tilicB, the Lime Hawk-Moth, repre- 

 senting the ... ... ... ... NocTURNi. 



Biston hirtaria, representing ... ... GEOMETRiE. 



Pyga^ra biicephala and Dicraniila vitiula, repre- 

 senting ... ... ... ... CUSPIDATES. 



Hecatero Serena, xe]yxe?,Qr\i\x\g ... ... Noctu^. 



Fkris brasskcc, re^re?,tn\.mg ... ... Diurni. 



Pupae are to be found anywhere and everywhere. Some 

 larvae, like the Plcridcc, suspend themselves by a single cord 

 placed round their waist, and turn thus to the pupa state. Others, 

 like the Vanessa family, suspend themselves head downwards. 

 Others spin hammocks on their food-plants ; others spin leaves of 

 trees together, taking care also, however, to fasten the leaves to 

 the branch, so that when the leaves die in the autumn they do not 

 fall to the ground, but remain securely fixed until the moth 

 emerges in the spring ; others gnaw the bark of trees, and with 

 the debris build themselves a strong house so like the trunk of the 



