ABOUT LARV^. O 



an ample allowance. I must say, even at the risk of appearing jealous 

 of otlier men's varieties, that I think adherence to the type a good 

 rough measure of tlie care with which larvae are kept. Anyone who 

 happens to have kept a young sparrow-liawk will remember that a 

 day's starvation leaves a mark on the plumage. Now there is no doubt 

 that varieties which are the result of an inadequate food-supply are 

 often very pretty and interesting to look at, but I can't see that they 

 are of any great scientific value. But a very interesting paper might 

 be written — it possibly has been written — on the question whether 

 larva}, if starved, are liable to produce varieties, other than half- 

 cripples, and whether the so-called varieties produced by change of 

 food, are due to the chemical difference in the food-plant, or to the fact 

 that the larva half -starves itself, ratlier than eat the nasty stuff which 

 is given to it. 



I know not a few men, who could perfectly keep larvae successfully, 

 })ut who refuse to do so, because they imagine that there is a lack of 

 sport, and exercise, and interest in larva hunting, as compared with 

 the capture of the perfect insect. Of course, I quite grant the some- 

 what shady side of nursing and petting larvae, and then putting the 

 same creature, when it has reached the moth stage, brutally into a 

 cyanide bottle, or something equivalent. I would prefer to leave that 

 part of the question alone. 1 don't feel quite competent to deal with it. 

 At any rate, I for one am not prepared, after breeding with some care, 

 say a fine male Apatura iris, to take him to an oak Avood and give him a 

 run for his money. The odds are a trifle too heavy- on the insect. But 

 what I do wish strongly to insist upon is that the pursuit of larvae is 

 just as fascinating, from an festhetic or any other point of view, as the 

 pursuit of the imago. Is it night work that charms you ? Then take 

 a sweeping net, and go out on to the wild heath-land and sweep for 

 Agrotis ayathina and Noctua neglecta. You will drink to the full 

 the weird beauty of the night, as the twilight comes creeping in 

 from the north and east. You will get the slight thrill of terror, as 

 the other hunters of the night, in air and heather, brush past you. 

 You will see the last glimmer of day fade out in the west, and 

 feel how life is always ebbing away somewhere. You will gaze 

 in awe at the unfathomable depths in the blue-black heavens, 

 or watch the mist-wreaths twining in the valleys and hollows. 

 Is it bodily exercise that you desire, to relieve the hard-worked brain, 

 or for the pride of feeling the muscles harden ? The man who can 

 sweep the heather for two hours, can do most feats of endurance. The 

 man who can beat for a day in spring at the pines, and sallows, and 

 oaks, and birches, without blistering his liands and aching in every 

 muscle, need fear few other tests, and will sleep the sleep of the weary. 

 Is it skill and keenness of eye that you wish to cultivate ? Then 

 go and pick me off that larva of Sphinx Ugmtri from rhe privet liedge. 

 Its back is turned away, but you can see the dark row of spots where 

 its feet are clasping an inner twig, low down in the hedge. Go and 

 look up into the beeches for a morning, and let me see you come back 

 with a dozen LimacodcH aseUus. And then, if your neck is weary of 

 looking up, take a turn in the afternoon at MacroglvuHU boiubi/li/onuis, 

 or search the dead wood (if you will insist that hombi/li/ormis 

 has been in the pupa for some time) in and around the sallows, 

 for the cocoon of Dicrannra furcula, I don't tliink you will 



