COLLECTING OVA, LARVM, AND PUPM 107 



As farther aids to larva? searching we may mention that many 

 species chiefly of the Noctucs hide under the surface of the ground 

 or among dense and low herbage during the day, and come out to 

 feed only by night ; that many others feed on roots, and are there- 

 fore seldom seen above the surface of the soil ; also that a good 

 number burrow into fruits, in the interior of which they spend the 

 whole of their larval stage. The best way to secure the latter is to 

 examine the ' windfalls ' that lie scattered on orchard lands, for it 

 is a well-known fact that the fruits that are infested with larva? 

 generally fall earlier than others a result that must be attributed 

 to the damaging work of the larvae themselves. 



All the larvae collected should be carefully boxed at once, a 

 separate compa,rtment being used for each species, and a few frag- 

 ments of the food plant being introduced in each case. It is also a 

 good plan to have each box previously lined with moss as a further 

 addition to the comfort of the captives. Without such a precaution 

 some of the more delicate species are liable to injury during their 

 transmission from field to home. 



Hitherto we have obtained our larva? by searching only, but 

 there are times and occasions when our boxes may be far more 

 rapidly filled by methods that are not such a tax on our time and 

 patience. Suppose, for instance, that we reach a bush, the muti- 

 lated leaves of which seem to show that larvse are present on its 

 branches. We spread our white cloth or open out the white- 

 lined umbrella just under a selected branch, and then tap that 

 branch very smartly with our stick. 



Down comes a host of living creatures ! Spiders, larva?rbeetles, 

 aphides, earwigs, and what not, struggling and running about on 

 our white fabric in all directions, and all mingled with bits of stick, 

 leaves, and fragments of all kinds. We leave the cloth or the um- 

 brella, as the case may be, quite still for a few seconds to allow all 

 the living creatures to get a good foothold, and then, raising it into 

 a vertical position, allow all the rubbish to drop off. 



We can now put the cloth down again, and select as many of 

 the larvae as we require, giving our first attention to the nimble 

 runners and loopers that are already near the edge and just on the 

 point of making their escape. This productive method of larva 

 hunting is known as ' beating,' and is particularly applicable to tall 

 herbs and the lower branches of trees and shrubs. 



The same principle may be employed in the case of branches 

 that are quite out of the reach of the stick, but the blows are here 



