1860. 39 
them to the jam-pot, or the cyhiidcr turned topside (muslin end) downwards : iu 
the latter case they will not bo long in attaching themselves to the muslin. 
Secondly, a more or less sharp jar will cause certain of them to lower themselves 
by threads, by which they may bo readily shifted on to the fresh food. Thirdly, a 
slight touch with a camel's-hair pencil causes others to fall perpendicularly down- 
wards ; while a fourth batch exhibits a very keen sense of the proximity of newly- 
gathered food, and may be loft to find then- own way from the stale to the fresh 
supply, and so on. 
In conducting the changing process I would impress upon the reader the 
advisability of first preparing a duplicate cage (whether jam-pot, flower-pot, or 
cylinder), by " sweetening" it with free currents of dry fresh air, and then stocking 
it with a proper quantity of appropriate food. In the second place the contents of 
the cage to be operated on, live-stock and all, should be turned out on a largo 
white meat-dish, an utensil possessing prodigious advantages over the more-ofteu- 
used sheet of paper, both in point of cleanly whiteness of material and also in 
smoothness of surface, such as would puzzle even a " lubricipede" to escape from ; 
while a similar attempt on the part of a geometer would be simply preposterous ; 
indeed, the position of most larvae on the glazed superficies is much that of an 
incipient skater down on the ice, and gladly as a rule do they avail themselves of 
the proffered twig : easily, too, may such as spin threads be lifted by their silken 
appendices with the aid of a camel's hair brush, and transferred to the newly- 
prepared quarters ; while those that sham death can be literally shovelled into 
their fresh domicile. 
The old food having been jarred over the dish, and larvae which fall transferred, 
should next be searched over for such as show no disposition to leave go their hold, 
and these latter may be detached by chpping ofif carefully (for if done with a " snap" 
the larvsB are jerked away) with a pair of scissors the portion of the food on which 
they rest, and allowing the larvte with the pieces thus cut off to fall gently on the 
fresh supply of food ; for I hold that, though several kinds of larvse do not appear 
to sustain injury from tender handling, it is, as a rule, neither necessary nor 
desirable to touch them with the fingers.* The old food should not always be thrown 
away at once, but left on the glazed dish for future examination, in the event of 
there being amongst it any larva? which may have eluded us. 
In a few instances, these being chiefly among the larvse of the Noctuina, it is 
necessary to provide hiding-places ; for those of Orthosia, Xanthia, Noctua, &c., 
dead leaves, pieces of bark, broken chip boxes, bits of flannel, &c., may be employed ; 
while for Agrotis and a few others a considerable depth of fine earth or sand is 
necessary. 
Larvae which in Nature hybernate must either be stimulated by warmth and 
fresh food to feed up unnaturally fast, or else through the winter must be exposed 
to out-door temperature. 
Some hybernating larvae are full fed before taking up their winter quarters, in 
which case they will of course feed no more. Others exhibit no desire for food 
* Painfully undesirable indeed is it to handle the larva of Porthesia chrysorrhoea, and other 
hairy larvae in less degree, for should their easily detached spines become appliet' to any tender part of 
our skin, an intolerable irritation is produced, which is very difficult to alleviate. Indeed, on the 
Continent, the hyperiesthetic symptoms produced by the larva of Cnethocanipa proccsiionea and 
pityocampa have been known to result even in death. 
