THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 223 



But in the case of this particular species this orderhness was fatal. 

 After Dr. Riley went to Washington, I resolved on the " let alone " 

 policy. I put the larvae into a cage with clean earth with an admixture 

 of sand which I dampened slightly and only at considerable intervals 

 during winter, kept the cage in a very cool place, and the next summer 

 was rewarded with several fine specimens of Maniestra legitima, my only 

 disappointment being that it was a species by no means uncommon. 



With me Scopelosoma sidus behaved in an almost equally capricious 

 manner, but was, after many trials, finally reared by adopting the same 

 methods as with legitima. I now make it a practice to sift or change the 

 earth in my cages only in the spring and autumn before the hibernating 

 pupae are formed. Of course, if I wish to note pupal characteristics, I 

 have to run the risk of the disturbance, but this is only occasional. I 

 have found that frequent dampening, when the cages are kept in doors, is 

 also detrimental, and that hibernating larvae and pupee are far less likely 

 to suffer from drought than from dampness. 



In rearing the Micro-lepidoptera— in which I have an especial interest 

 — various tactics must be pursued, and the imagination is often vainly 

 taxed to suggest a provision which the delayed changes and general un- 

 rest of the insect plainly call for. 



Under natural conditions it is very difficult to keep track of these 

 small creatures. The leaves or flowers or fruits on which they may be 

 found feeding on one day will be deserted by the next, and during the 

 darkness they will have betaken themselves to parts unknown, the most 

 assiduous search failing to discover them. In the rearing jar some 

 species adapt themselves very kindly ; others will crawl about for days 

 spinning threads of silk over sides and cover and finally dry up without 

 effecting their transformations. 



An accident to which the student is liable, and against which he can 

 with difficulty make provision, is to have the larva, which he has perhaps 

 just described and figured, escape. How often have I taken up a bottle 

 in which I had been rearing a particularly precious unknown, and found 

 a tiny hole in the muslin cover, or perhaps a little flap cut at the edge of 

 the bottle, telling only too surely of the loss and delay which a further 

 examination verified. The annual brooded species which appear in the 

 spring are the beteis iioir of the Micro-lepidopterist, especially such 



