February, '16] AIXSLIE: CRAMBID NOTES 117 



species at Cornell in 1892-3 but did not succeed in obtaining adults. 

 His caged material all died during the winter, and, in the light of our 

 experience, this was probabh' due either to a lack or to an excess of 

 moisture. It is very difficult to keep the larvae so that they will neither 

 dr}' out nor be attacked by fungi because of too much moisture. 

 Even though the adults are secured from larvse reared on potted 

 plants, little more is learned than the total length of the combined 

 larval and pupal life. The first year of our work we obtained many 

 adults in this way but found we were making little progress in getting 

 at the number and description of instars. Larvse cannot be dug 

 out of the earth every day or two without affecting their health. As 

 Rev. Thos. W. Fyles wrote after he had attempted to rear some of 

 them some years ago: "At this stage I lost my specimens — the fre- 

 quent disturbances necessary to the observation of their habits prov- 

 ing destructive to them." 



In the fall of 1914 we began to experiment with the tin salve boxes 

 which are proving so useful in rearing many kinds of insects and soon 

 found that they satisfied every reciuirement. We transfer the larvsB 

 as soon as they hatch to a one-half-oz. box containing a moistened 

 disk of white blotting paper and a small piece of a grass blade or other 

 food. With a little experience one is able to regulate the moisture and 

 food supply to the age and species of the larva, for all species do not 

 thrive under the same conditions. No earth or sand is used in the box. 

 Most larvse soon make a retreat of silk and bits of grass but they can 

 easily be driven from this for examination and will return to it as soon 

 as the box is closed. A number of checks were run to determine if 

 the records of the duration of the various stages obtained with these 

 boxes were comparable with those made under outdoor conditions 

 and they agreed almost exactly, the new generation of moths often 

 making its appearance in the outdoor check cages on the same day 

 that adults emerged in the boxes. 



We have reared a number of species through from egg to adult in 

 this way, and, with each individual under observation every day, it 

 has been possible to obtain beautiful series of larvse preserved in each 

 instar, as well as descriptions of the same made from the living larvae. 



Not all has been smooth sailing, however, for we soon found some 

 species whose newly hatched larvae, however politely they were treated, 

 refused altogether to feed on anything we could offer them. AVe were 

 especially disappointed to find this to be the case with the caliginosellus- 

 zeellus-luteolellus group for we had hoped by rearing series of moths 

 with known parents to unravel the relationships of this clan, Crambus 

 elegans, alhodavellus and laqueatellus, in addition to caliginoselhis and 

 luteolellus, have so far failed to respond to any treatment we have been 



