xvi INSECTA : LEPIDOPTERA 241 



butterflies free, unless you are afraid of tlie possible damage their 

 offspring may do to your cabbages or those of your neighbour ! 



Study of other Butterflies and Moths. 



1. Collect any Lepidopteran eggs or caterpillars that you can 

 find, 1 always bringing home with them a good supply of the plant 

 on which you find them, as that may be the only one on which 

 the larvae will feed. 



Very small caterpillars may be conveniently kept at first in the 

 glass-topped, round, tin breeding-boxes which can be bought at 

 most dealers ; larger caterpillars may be kept in such a simple 

 breeding-frame as that shown in Fig. 167, made of a glass candle- 

 shade and a pot of earth, the stalk of the food-plant being put into a 

 small pot of wet sand to keep it fresh. Each kind of caterpillar 

 should have its own home. This type of insect- cage is convenient 

 when it is not known whether the caterpillar is that of a moth or 

 of a butterfly, for in the former case, at pupation, it can enter the 

 earth in the pot ; in the latter case it will climb and pupate at the 

 top of the cylinder. Many other varieties of insect-cage can be 

 easily made, but it is important in them all to remember to arrange 

 for an earthy floor, a means of keeping the food-plant fresh, good 

 ventilation, and also shade, as caterpillars do not like bright light. 



In the case of each caterpillar kept, an illustrated record should 

 be made of the stages in its life-history. 



1 If collection is impossible, eggs, larvae, or piipae can always be obtained 

 from Mr. H. W. Head, entomologist, Scarborough, or from Mr. L. W. Newman, 

 Bexley, Kent, or from other entomologists. 



VOL. I R 



