ON A HABIT OF EBOS MINUTUS. l6l 



plantain-seeds, and perhaps a piece of potato and carrot on the 

 slate. If a bell-glass be not substituted for the ordinary cage, 

 an umbrella-like arrangement should protect the latter from rain 

 and snow, while the interior, n, should be loosely filled with a 

 selection from the materials already named. 



Fo7' subterranean pupation this chamber is especially adapted, 

 and for this purpose it should be stocked with a soil resembling 

 that which the occupants of the cage inhabit in their native 

 haunts, as peat, sand, loam, chalk, maiden earth, leaf mould, fir 

 mould, as the case may be. Great care should of course be taken 

 to eject and exclude vermin ; the soil should reach to within 

 about an inch of the slate, and be covered with a thin layer of 

 cocoa-nut fibre, rubbed birch catkins, or prepared moss. Pro- 

 vided the soil is suitable, this chamber may be used several times 

 over for batches of different species as they become ready for 

 pupation. When we consider that a sufficient number have gone 

 to earth, the slate with the larger openings, e e, may be exchanged 

 for the one with perforations, d d, care being taken to stop all 

 chinks and crevices, that no enemy may gain admittance to the 

 interior ; or, if preferred, the stage and cage may be discarded 

 altogether for a cylinder of muslin, of close texture, made on a 

 wire frame, and tied tightly under the rim of the pot g. There 

 is no ingress for vermin below, and few, if any, can do harm 

 through the book muslin, which affords a good foothold for the 

 insects as they emerge, acts as a shade against too powerful sun- 

 shine, and is sufficiently transparent to permit of a view of the 

 interior. 



N.B. — If mice, or other creatures which might gnaw the 

 muslin, are in evidence, it would be as well to place hghtly on 

 the soil a framework, to which the images on making their 

 appearance could cling, and cover the whole with a suitable bell- 

 glass, bedded in plaster on to the rim of the pot g, in order to 

 exclude intruders. 



Unless there is reason to fear that mischief is going on, it is 

 never advisable to move the earth containing the pupae ; but if 

 the soil should at any time appear too dry, sufficient moisture 

 may be administered through the porous sides of the dark 

 chamber. 



Folkestone, April 7tli, 1894. 



ON A HABIT OF EROS {PLATYCIS) MINUTUS, F. 

 Bv W. L. Distant* 



In the February number of this Magazine (p. 33) Mr. Shipp 

 has recorded his discovery of a colony of P. minutus in Gloucester- 

 shire, and in describing the habits of the species truly remarks, 



