FOOD. 425 



find, in order to study their economy. In the case of those 

 just mentioned, which live in dung, in decayed vegetables, 

 or in earth, whea they cannot climb upon glass, we have 

 found that open ale-glasses or common tumblers filled with 

 the materials among which they are found, and kept in a 

 due state of moistness, constitute the best apparatus ; for 

 even when the animals dig down, their movements can 

 usually be observed through the sides of the glass. In the 

 case of the meal-worm, which lives upon flour, the same 

 expedient answers well, and the whole history of the insect 

 may be read from day to day by simple inspection. We 

 are well aware that it is not common in these collecting 

 days of ours, to take the trouble of breeding any insects 

 besides moths and butterflies ; but our design being not to 

 procure specimens, but to ascertain facts, we advise the 

 breeding of every insect whose history it is required to 

 investigate. 



In order to succeed in this object, it will be indispens- 

 able to place the insects as much as possible in their natural 

 circumstances. Those who breed moths and butterflies to 

 procure specimens, feed them in boxes, into which a branch 

 of the plant each feeds on is placed in a straight-necked 

 phial of water, to keep it fresh. We have found it prefer- 

 able to give them fresh leaves twice or thrice a-day, for 

 the plants kept in water are apt to scour and kill the 

 insects. When we have been unprovided with boxes, we 

 have used ale-glasses or glass tumblers with success, either 

 turning them bottom upwards, and admitting air round the 

 edges by inserting slips of card, or covering them with 

 gauze at top. Such glasses seem to have been the chief 

 apparatus used by Eeaumur, Bonnet, and De Geer, in those 

 researches which are quite unrivalled in our own days. 

 Small pasteboard boxes, like those made for ladies' caps, 

 answer very well when covered with gauze. 



The breeding-cage employed by Mr. Stephens he has 

 thus described : — " The length of the box is twenty inches ; 

 height twelve ; and breadth six ; and it is divided into five 

 compartments. Its lower half is constructed entirely of 

 wood, and the upper of coarse gauze, stretched upon 



