30 COLLECTING AND PRESERVING INSECTS. 



fungi, toadstools and in the pith of currant or raspberry bushes. 

 Most are solitary, a few gregarious. A bush stripped of its 

 leaves and covered with webs, if not done by Clisiocampa (the 

 American tent caterpillar) , will witness the work of a Tortrix 

 or Tineid. Buds of unfolded herbs suffer from their attacks, 

 such as the heads of composite flowers which are drawn to- 

 gether and consumed by the larvae. 



After some practice in rearing larvae it will be found easier 

 and more profitable to search for the leaf miners, and rear the 

 perfect, fresh and uninjured moths from them. In this way 

 many species never found in the perfect state can be secured.* 



In raising "Micro" larvae it is essential that the leaf in which 

 they mine be preserved fresh for a long time. Thus a glass 

 jar, tumbler or jam-pot, the top of which has been ground to 

 receive an air-tight glass cover, and the bottom covered with 

 moist white sand, will keep a leaf fresh for a week, and thus 

 a larva in the summer will have to be fed but two or three 

 times before it changes ; and the moth can be seen through the 

 glass without taking off the cover ; or a glass cylinder can be 

 placed over a plant inserted in wet sand, having the top cov- 

 ered with gauze. Dr. H. G. Knaggs, in treating of the man- 

 agement of caterpillars in breeding boxes, enumerates the 

 diseases, besides muscardine and cholerine (and we might add 

 pebrine) to which they are subject. Among direct injuries are 

 wounds and bruises, which may be productive of deformities in 

 the future imago ; the stings of ichneumon flies, whose eggs laid 

 either upon or in the body may be crushed with finely pointed 

 scissors or pliers ; frost bites ; and suffocation, chiefly from 

 drowning. If the caterpillar has not been more than ten or 

 twelve hours in the water it may be recovered by being dried 

 on a piece of blotting paper and exposed to the sun. Larvae 

 may also starve to death, even when food is abundant, from 

 loss of appetite, or improper ventilation, light, etc. ; or they 

 may eat too much, become dropsical and die. Caterpillars 

 undoubtedly suffer from a contagious disease analogous to low 



*"In general, it may be said, the mines of the leaf miners are characteristic of 

 the genus to which the larva may belong. A single mine once identified, enables 

 the collector to pronounce on the genus of all the species he m:iy find thereafter. 

 This, added to the ease with which the larva? are collected, and the little subsequent 

 care required to bring them to maturity, except to keep the leaves in a fresh and 

 healthy state, mikes the study of this group, in every respect, pleasant and satis- 

 factory to the entomologist." (Clemens.) 



