BEARING LEPIDOPTEEA 117 



more troublesome, especially those which are inclined to take a 

 ramble on certain mild days in search of food when none is at 

 band. Still there is no reason why even a beginner should not 

 attempt the rearing of these. They will require food in the 

 autumn until the cold weather sets in, and again early in spring 

 as soon as the new leaves appear ; but this is not of much 

 consequence to those who reside in districts where the required 

 food plants abound. 



Wood feeders also require some special treatment and precau- 

 tions, and the successful rearing of some is a matter of no little 

 difficulty. A wooden cage is, of course, quite out of the question 

 with these, unless you wish to test the power of their jaws. They 

 must be kept in large pots or jars, covered over with wire gauze or 

 perforated zinc, and supplied with fresh stems or logs of wood, or 

 with moist sawdust fresh from their favourite tree. A few of them 

 the ' Goat ' (page 224), for example will eat dead and rotting 

 wood, and may be fed on old palings and other waste providing the 

 right kind is selected. 



The troubles and disappointments of larva rearers are numerous 

 and varied, and commence with the earliest moments of the 

 young insects. Even the hatching period sometimes proves a 

 trial, for it occasionally happens that the young larva has not 

 sufficient strength to bite its way through the shell that surrounds 

 it, and dies with nothing but the surface of its head exposed to 

 view. This may be the result of keeping the ova in too dry a spot, 

 the shell having become too hard and horny for the little creature's 

 jaws. 



Then the moulting seasons are always periods of trial to the 

 larvae, and often of loss to the rearer. Some of the hardier species 

 may pass through all their moults without appearing to suffer any- 

 thing more than a slight inconvenience at each, but in other cases 

 the greater part of a brood may fall victims to these ailments of 

 the growing stage. 



Apart from these sources of loss, however, larvae are subject to 

 numerous diseases, infectious and otherwise, about which we know 

 but little. A fever may rage in one of our cages ; a fungoid growth 

 may establish itself on the bodies of our pets, or we may see them 

 cut down, one by one, through a fatal attack of diarrhoea. 



In many such cases we are at a loss as to what to do. Blue 

 pills and black draughts are not to be prescribed, and the modern 

 practices of surgery and inoculation have not yet been applied to 



