EXPERIMENTS IN REARING. / i 



meadow, from which the surface peat or turf had been re- 

 moved. Rough stones, decayed sticks, cress, and eel grass 

 were placed in the former, while the latter stood on the 

 bottom of the ditch enclosing such organic material as 

 happened to be within its sides, together with two or three 

 pieces of turf. The widest cage was placed so that it 

 might enclose a section of the water and adjoining bank 

 of a small stream which drained the meadows. 



Numbers of the larvie of the dragon fly, caddis fly, and 

 even some Diptera were netted out of the adjacent streams 

 and ditches witli a large net of unbleached muslin having 

 a wire cloth strainer in the bottom, collected in tin pails, 

 and emptied into the cages, care being taken to return 

 each species to the cage more nearly corresponding in situ- 

 ation to that from which it was taken. The ends of the 

 cages were frequently cleared of the accumulation of float- 

 ing material, to permit the easy entrance of such insects as 

 might serve for food. The result was very satisfactory. 

 The caddis flies emerged during May and June and occa- 

 sionally thereafter during the summer. The dragon flies 

 appeared sparingly at first, but during the latter part of 

 July and early part of August readily crawled up the 

 rough sides of the interior of the cages, emerged from 

 their pupal cases, and expanded their wings by suspending 

 themselves from the under side of the covers. Several 

 species of Diplax M^ere abundant, of Anax Junius only a 

 few were obtained, while Libellula pulchella was fairly 

 numerous. Other genera, which I do not now remember, 

 were represented by an occasional specimen. Not a single 

 instance of pairing was observed, and some little time was 

 required in drying wings after full expansion before the 

 insects were able to use them. 



