REARING CATERPILLARS. 195 



sity in a hot climate is somewhat a hindrance 

 to outdoor business ; but it is a treat to watch 

 them rapidly cutting the neat little bits out of 

 the fresh food, and their fine appetites many a 

 human being might envy. I often regret that 

 I cannot enjoy the sight at my leisure, but 

 sometimes have as many as twenty-seven boxes 

 of different species, some of them even requiring 

 fresh food twice a day, so the task has to be 

 gone through in a strictly business way. Some 

 seem to do nothing else but eat day and night, 

 but others feed only at night. 



I have just reared three very handsome long 

 brown-haired ones, with a beautiful pattern, as 

 if in old gold plush, waving down each side. 

 These were night feeders, one completely burying 

 himself in a sardine-box full of damp sand 

 all day, and coming out about eight o'clock to 

 feed. From this I concluded they would change 

 to the pupa state underground, but they spun 

 a loose hairy web under some of the leaves on 

 the surface. They grew to be more than five 

 and a half inches long, and before the final 



