ENTOMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTS, &C. 553 



There are several kinds of boxes recommended to re- 

 ceive them and breed them in. If your only object is to 

 get the perfect insect, a cubical box of moderate dimen- 

 sions, glazed in front or on one side to enable you to 

 watch their proceedings, with the other sides and top 

 fitted with fine canvass for the admission of air, will very 

 well answer this purpose ; or your box may be canvassed 

 all round, with a door in front a . In this you may place 

 a small garden-pot filled with earth, with a phial of 

 water plunged in it to receive the insects' food. This 

 may be moved, when you wish to change the water, 

 without disturbing the earth, which should be kept some- 

 what moist. The earth is for those caterpillars whose 

 pupae are subterranean. But as you will probably wish 

 to proceed scientifically, and ascertain precisely the moth 

 that comes from each caterpillar, I should strongly re- 

 commend to you a box invented by Mr. Stephens, which 

 he describes in a letter to me in nearly these words : 

 " The length of the box is 20 inches, height 12, and 

 breadth 6 ; and it is divided Into Jive compartments. Its 

 lower half is constructed intirely of wood, and the upper 

 of coarse gauze stretched upon wooden or wire frames : 

 each compartment has a separate door, and is moreover 

 furnished with a phial in the centre for the purpose of 

 containing water, in which the food is kept fresh ; and is 

 half-filled with a mixture of fine earth and the dust from 

 the inside of rotten trees ; the latter article being added 

 for the purpose of rendering the former less binding upon 

 the pupae, as well as being highly important for the use 

 of such larvae as construct their cocoons of rotten wood. 

 The chief advantages of a breeding cage of the above 

 " PLATF XXIV. FIG. 6. 



