CARE OF CATERPILLARS AND MOTHS 33 



Diseased or feeble larvae should be put into separate 

 tins, when they often recover. 



A caterpillar should never be removed from the leaf 

 or twig, but the piece it is on should be replaced in 

 the box. The larva will crawl off to a fresh twig 

 when ready, and then will not be injured by handling. 

 Some books tell of the toughness of the caterpillar- 

 skin, but slight experience will show that often a very 

 gentle pull is enough to break the skin and kill the 

 crawler. 



Abundance of food should be provided, for the cat- 

 erpillars do not over-eat, though they eat voraciously 

 when nearly full fed. If leaves give out, the stronger 

 sometimes eat the weaker inhabitants of the box, and we 

 have known some of the arctiaus to eat freshly formed 

 pupae of their own kind even when leaves abounded. 

 For this reason, and also to prevent any uniutentional 

 injury, a caterpillar about to pupate should be put into 

 a box by itself — a spiuner into a pasteboard or 

 wooden box with scrim over the top under the cover, 

 to prevent the cocoon's being fastened to the cover 

 and sides of the box, and thus being torn when the 

 box is opened. A burrowing larva may be put into 

 an empty tin box and shut up, when in a few days the 

 pupa will be found well formed, unless there has been 

 some defect or disease in the larva. A few caterpil- 

 lars, however, — Protoparce celeus, P. Carolina, and Ccra- 

 tomia amijiitor, — exude so much gummy^fluid that they 

 need a little' earth in the tin to absorb it, otherwise 

 they may die instead of pupating. An inch of earth 

 in the box is enough. 



Pupae should not be handled while soft, for their 



