NATURAL HISTORY WORK IN CART AGO 55 



ject above the surface of the water even with larvae not 

 ready to transform. Every jar was covered with mosquito 

 netting at once to keep out mosquitoes and to keep In the 

 rightful occupant. Each moult was recorded and the exuvia 

 preserved. And first, last and all the time the larvae had to 

 be fed. As the number of jars containing larvae increased, 

 the task of feeding and caring for such a family was at times 

 quite absorbing. The necessity of looking after them was 

 one reason for our frequent returns to Cartago, and If we 

 wished to be absent more than a fortnight it was essential 

 for one of us to return for a day or two purposely to feed 

 the live stock. 



We were fortunate in finding suitable food with little 

 difficulty. To the youngest larvae to be fed, those which 

 had just used up their egg-yolk, we supplied Infusoria, 

 copepods and similar small animals, which we nearly always 

 could be sure of finding in abundance in any grassy pool. 

 For the older ones we gathered mosquito larvae, or small 

 Agrionlne larvae which at times could be literally raked in 

 by dozens and were quite popular. Our main dependence, 

 however, was on the red larvae of the gnat Chironomus, which 

 always could be caught in any desired numbers, by the aid 

 of a little water net. In a certain dirty ditch at the lower end 

 of the town. The existence of these "blood-worms" in such 

 unvarying abundance was really the secret of our success in 

 rearing as many species as we did. They are greedily eaten 

 by all but the extremely young dragonflies and were served 

 up In "assorted sizes," tiny worms to tiny dragonfly larvae, 

 middle-sized worms to half-grown larvae and fat full-grown 

 worms or pupae to the big fellows. They are very juicy 

 with few hard parts to be discarded and have the further 

 advantage of wriggling constantly, so that our charges saw 

 them readily. It was a droll sight (although undoubtedly 

 hard on the blood-worms) to watch a hitherto motionless 



