1883.] 173 



tion, supplying fresh food when necessary. Particular care, however, 

 must be taken never to introduce any food in a damp state, from 

 either dew or rain, or mould will be the immediate result. These 

 species will spin up among their food-plant and emerge in many cases 

 in a fortnight, in all cases within the same season. The few species 

 in these groups, such as Tortrix icterana and viburnana and CEnectra 

 Pilleriann, which generally feed on succulent low-growing plants, 

 should have plenty of air, not being covered with glass unless the food 

 begins to wither, such plants becoming very quickly rotten if covered 

 closely down. This is also the case with the curious balls of young 

 bramble leaves twisted up by the larva of N'otocelia Udmanniana. 



In the case of the very numerous species which feed in the shoots 

 of shrubs and low plants eating out the young leaves, such as the larger 

 species of AntitJiesia, Hypermecia, BracTiytcenia, Pardia, Spilonota, 

 Hedya, Steyanoptycha, parts of Faramesia, Semasia, and Poecilocliroma, 

 much judgment must be used. Where the shoots are of hard-leaved 

 bushes and plants and the larva does not pack its domicile with frass, 

 tins or gallipots may be used and covered with glass, or wholly or 

 partially uncovered as seems necessary from the state of the weather or 

 the condition of the food, but shoots of soft-leaved low-growing plants, 

 and those which, as in the case of Steg. ncevana, are apt to be full of 

 frass, should be put into ordinary rough flower-pots and tied tightly 

 down with calico, old lining, or any close-textured material that comes 

 to hand. These pots allow a good deal of evaporation, and if dry 

 moss is introduced it will also absorb some of the superfluous moisture, 

 BO that glass may be laid either completely or partially over these also 

 to keep the food from withering, but it must be frequently removed 

 and the food stirred up and examined and prevented from becoming 

 mouldy or rotten. The same should be done with larvae of Sericoris, 

 some of which feed in flower-spikes as well as young shoots, and are, 

 therefore, still more liable to injury from mould or decay. But of all 

 the low-plant feeders the most diflicult by far to rear are the Sciaphilce. 

 It is hardly possible to keep the solid composite flowers in which 

 perterana and ictericana feed from becoming mouldy, and the larvsB 

 do not willingly move to fresh flowers. Perhaps the best plan is to 

 tie up the infested flowers with others in close bunches, so that air 

 can get round them and then tie them down in flower-pots. The 

 shoots and curved leaves in which virgaureana and other species feed 

 can only be treated as before described. But the difiiculty of keeping 

 the food in good condition is as nothing compared to the diflS.culty of 

 keeping the larvae in any sort of confinement. They seem beyond 



