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BULLETIN 67, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



and the plants send their roots down near the glass. The glass sides 

 are covered with a sheet of tin or zinc which excludes the light. This 

 cage may be let down into a hole in the soil and so kept at about the 

 normal temperature of the soil. A large number of wood-boring 

 insects may be reared by collecting dying wood and fallen twigs in the 

 autumn and carrying them into a room. In the spring the insects 

 will issue and fly to the window. Similarly galls, acorns, and seeds 

 of various kinds may be placed in jars to rear the insects. 



Mr. Elliott, who raised many pupse, kept them in a pupa box made 

 as follows: A box about 20 by 16, and 8 mches deep, with a bottom of 

 coarse wire cloth placed about 2 inches from the bottom, is divided 

 into four compartments by thin wooden partitions. Over the wire 

 cloth is placed a thick layer of baked sphagnum moss which has been 



Fig. 173.— A root cage, for rearing insects "which live underground, a, Frame with 



SLIDE REMOVED; 6, MOVABLE SLIDE; C, TOP VIEW. 



pulled into fine bits. The pupre are laid on this floor of moss and cov- 

 ered with a thick layer of moss prepared in the same manner as that 

 beneath. The box is covered by a glass plate. In the summer and 

 autumn this box may be kept over a pan of water, but in the winter 

 time it should be left in a cool room or even out of doors where it will 

 not be injured nor become too wet. Pupa? should not be kept in a 

 heated room. They are apt to dry out or else the imago will not 

 properly expand its wings. 



Mr. Burke made a neat cage for rearing some insects infesting bark 

 by knocking off the bottom of a baking-powder can, cutting the sides 

 into narrow strips, and tacking these to the tree over the spot where 

 the insect was feeding. This cage is shown in figure 174. 





