327 



1 75. Enquiry respecting the mode of hreeding Lasiocampa Ruhi. 

 Being ardently attached to the study of Entomology, and a cx)nstant 

 reader of your periodical, I should be much obliged if you, or any of 

 your correspondents, would, through its pages, direct me in breeding 

 the fox moth (Lasiocampa Rubi). The perfect insect has never, to 

 my knowledge, been taken here, but the larva? are abundant ; I have 

 taken them in all stages of gi'owth, and supplied them with bramble, 

 willow &c., until they appeared full fed and ceased eating. My breed- 

 ing box being divided, in one partition I have kept the larva? with the 

 mould damp by means of moss, damping and changing it fi'equently 

 all the winter ; in another I have allowed the small branches of wil- 

 low, dry grass, &c., to remain, taking care not to disturb the larvce ; 

 but the result has always been the same, namely, in the early part of 

 spring some of the caterpillars will just put their heads out of the 

 branches and die ; others will come from their concealment and range 

 about the box a few days, when I have supplied them with young 

 shoots of brambles and whatever else T could find coming into leaf, 

 but could never find they eat anything, but soon followed the example of 

 the others : one only began to spin, but died before it had half finish- 

 ed its shroud. — /. W. Clarke ; Horning, May 3, 1842. 



176. Mode of hreeding Lasiocampa Ruhi. I take a large box about 

 ten inches deep, the bottom of which is bored with a number of holes 

 to allow the water to drain out, and the top covered with wire gauze. 

 In this box I place a turf of heath cut to fit it; the caterpillars are 

 placed in it in the autumn and fed as long as the leaves last, or until 

 they become torpid : they are left in the garden exposed to all the 

 changes of the weather. The first warm days in March bring them 

 out, and they bask in the sun for a week or two, but never feed in the 

 spring. About the middle of April they begin spinning their cocoons, 

 and by the end of May or early in June the moths appear. I have 

 adopted this plan for several seasons, and have always had abundance 

 of moths produced. I believe I have now at least two hundred in the 

 chrysalis state. The same plan answers equally well with the larva 

 of Phragmatobia fuliginosa and other species that live through the 

 winter. — Henry Douhleday ; Epping, May 6, 1842. 



177. Moths attracted hy the light at the North Foreland. When 

 visiting the North Foreland light-house in August, 1840, the atten- 

 dant informed me that some nights hundreds of moths were to be 

 found reposing upon the lantern, while on other nights scarcely one 

 was to be seen. After midnight these moths seem in deep repose, and 

 arc with ease pinned upon the lantern. The man at the light-house 



