I LEPIDOPTERA. 2%! 



oon as the worms are hatched, the eggs are covered with net, and 

 >ver this are placed mulberry boughs, covered with tender leaves, on 

 /hich all the little worms congregate. They are then lifted up with a 

 look made of thin wire, and the worms are placed on a table covered 

 /ith paper, leaving a proper space between each. They are given, as 

 heir first meal, tender leaves cut into little pieces with a knife. These 

 re the operations gone through for the two raisings of worms on the 

 econd and third day of the hatching. During this first age they give 

 liem from six to eight meals a day, taking care to distribute their 

 ood to them as equally as possible. The first meal is given at five 

 )'clock in the morning ; the last at eleven or twelve o'clock at night. 



When the moult is approaching, the young ones are made to climb 

 m to boughs having tender leaves, so that they can be moved to 

 itters as thin and clean as possible, and there sleep in a good state 

 ,)f health. When the mass of worms is well awake again, the next 

 hing to do is to take them off the litter on which they moulted, and 

 give them food. If this problem were proposed to a person strange 

 the operation which is now occupying our attention — to separate 

 he worms from the faded and withered food upon which they are 

 eposing, without touching them — he would certainly be very much at 

 L loss what to answer. The solution of this problem presented for 

 iL long time great difficulties, and occasioned numerous reverses in 

 he rearing. Now-a-days, thanks to the employment of a net, the 

 ielitement, or taking them off their bed, has become an easy operation. 



Over the worms, placed on a table, is spread a net, the meshes 

 )f which are broad enough to allow them to pass through. On this 

 let are spread the leaves which are to compose a meal. The worms 

 mmediately leave the old food, and get on to the new leaves. They 

 •hen lift the litter with the worms, and throw away the old leaves, 

 low unoccupied, clean the table, and replace the net with the 

 vorms. At the next delitejiient the first net is found under the litter. 

 Mgs. 21 T and 212 represent two forms of these nets made of thread. 



Thread nets, which were of great use, have been supplanted 

 ately, with great advantage, by paper ones, which were invented by 

 VI. Eugene Robert. These are leaves of paper, of a peculiar 

 nanufacture, pierced with holes proportioned to the size of the 

 vorms which are to pass through them. The paper net can be used 

 idvantageously also for separating the worms that are too near 

 ogether, or, as they say, for the dcdouhlement. Formerly, the 

 ielitement and the dedoublcinait were done by hand — a tedious work, 

 jind one that presented serious disadvantages. Now-a-days, as we 

 lave seen, the worms themselves perform these two perilous operations. 



