114 ON BREEDING ACULEATES, ETC. 



species are being collected, care must of course 

 be taken in splitting the wood ; most of these 

 make a pupa case over themselves, and are in 

 that respect easier to deal with. A label should 

 be put in each box to show where the larvae, etc., 

 were found. An old rotten stump of a tree 

 will often produce a good number of species. 

 Then there are the bramble-stem borers ; these 

 can be left in the stems. I have generally found 

 it convenient, after arriving home, to split the 

 stems down, to see if there are any living 

 creatures in them, and, if there are, to close 

 them up again, and, tie a little very fine net 

 or gauze bag over the top of each stem; in 

 this way one can find out exactly what insects 

 come from what stem, and determine the 

 cuckoos (if any) which belong to each. As the 

 season advances towards May, it is well to give 

 all the larvae, etc., an occasional glimpse of the 

 sun ; they should not be left in the sun long 

 enough for them to get dried up too much, but 

 the sun is a very important factor in tempting 

 them to emerge ; naked larvae and nymphs, in 

 glass-top boxes, should be treated very carefully 

 in this respect, as they are deprived of their 



