446 



JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



[Vol.7 



in 1913 it was about twenty-five. All of the cages were filled with 

 sifted volcanic soil planted with corn; the larvae were placed upon this 

 soil and allowed to enter, in this manner selecting the most hardy, 

 since the weaker ones were unable to enter and died upon the surface. 

 The following types of cages were used : ordinary square wooden boxes 

 (18 X 18 inches) kept in and out of doors; the same with wire gauze 

 bottom and buried into the earth; ordinary red, earthenware flower 

 pots kept indoors and wire gauze Tower breeding cages of various 

 lengths buried in the earth for their entire depth. The tabulations 

 are self explanatory, but maturities were counted if the pupa was 

 successfully formed: 



Year 



1912. 

 1913. 



Type of Cage 



Wooden boxes, indoors 



Flower pots, indoors 



Wooden boxes, indoors 



Wooden boxes, outdoors. . . . 

 Wooden boxes, miscellaneous 



Flower pots, indoors 



Tower cages, buried 



Wooden boxes, buried 



Per Cent 

 Maturing 



31. 



32. 

 4.3 

 2.2 

 5.17 



23. 



29. 



28.8 



19.3 



It is quite probable that the 1912 results are high because of the 

 fewer cages (only thirty-five), thus not obtaining a true average, but 

 it may be equalLy probable that they were due to the better attention 

 which each kind of cage received. Thus it would seem that the kind 

 of cage mattered very little, providing they received good attention. 

 The two hundred and fifty or more cages of 1913 were not as well 

 looked after, individually, as were the thirty-five of 1912. Yet, for 

 our purpose, it was much better to use a large number of cages with 

 smaller returns from each, since in 1912 only sixty-nine maturities 

 resulted, whereas in 1913 over five hundred adults were obtained. 



A hundred per cent of maturities resulted in two cases in flower 

 pots with three and seven larvae; in an ordinary box with forty- four 

 larvae of Xylotrupes , 77 per cent matured; with twelve cetonid 

 larvae in a flower pot 88.3 per cent matured; of twenty larvae of 

 Anoplognathus, 45 per cent matured in the ordinary box; of Lepidiota 

 larvae, the next largest percentage obtained from one cage was 68 with 

 nineteen larvae in a wooden box with gauze bottom, sunk into the 

 earth. In two other cages of the same type and with the same species, 

 66 and 57 per cent of maturity were obtained with twenty-seven and 

 twentj'^-six units respectively. But in a buried Tower gauze cage of a 



