CARE OF CATERPILLARS AND MOTHS 31 



leaves, with stems or twigs to rest on, and all through 

 the caterpillar life the leaves should be sprinkled a 

 little. 



We soon learned that leaves did not keep fresh half 

 a day in open or pasteboard boxes; we found that 

 bottles of water in cages or boxes were a source of 

 danger to the caterpillars and a trouble to us; so rea- 

 soning that plants would keej) fresh a long time in 

 closed tin boxes, and that caterpillars needed very 

 little air, we tried the experiment of putting our sprays 

 of leaves into water for an hour or two (as we should 

 put flowers we meant to send away in boxes), and then 

 putting them into our larva-tins for the caterpillars to 

 eat, or into our big tin boxes to be kept till needed. 

 We watched our first tins of caterpillars very closely, 

 and soon satisfied ourselves that the crawlers certainly 

 grew as fast and as large as when in the open air, 

 while the leaves kept far fresher than^n bottles of 

 water in open boxes or cages. Moreover, no parasitic 

 flies can sting them in these tins, unless they are put 

 in with the leaves, and this chance is very small. We 

 believe we have had one instance of it, and only one. 

 The tin boxes protected the caterpillars from mice 

 also, while in more than one case our " best specimen " 

 had fallen a victim to mice when we used cages or 

 netted boxes. Another advantage of the use of tin 

 boxes, outside of the Crawlerj^, is that no one is dis- 

 turbed by seeing the crawlers, and there is no fear of 

 finding caterpillars " all over the house," for none can 

 lift the tin covers except the big tomato- or potato- 

 caterpillars when in boxes shallow enough to let them 

 stand with their anal projjs on the bottom and their 



