664 



Collecting and Rearing Insects 



meat-safes (Fig. 810), which can be got at the grocer's for about a dollar apiece. 

 Comstock describes a good home-made cage built by fitting a pane of glass 

 into one side of an empty soap-box. A board, three or four inches wide, 

 should be fastened below the glass so as to admit of a layer of soil being 



FIG. 8 10. Meat-safe live-cage. 



placed in the lower part of the cage, and the glass can be made to slide, so 

 as to serve as a door (Fig. 811). The glass should fit closely when shut, 

 to prevent the escape of the insects. 



We have even made use in our laboratory of pasteboard shoe-boxes 

 with the middle part of the cover cut out (leaving but an inch or so around 

 the edges), and mosquito netting pasted 

 over the hole. Into such a box fresh 

 leaves must be put often, but beyond 

 the trouble it serves very well. Specially 

 made rearing-cages (Fig. 807) of various 

 kinds can be bought of dealers in natural- 

 ist's supplies, but they are mostly rather 

 expensive. 



For larvae that live underground 

 cages with soil in must be provided. 

 The principal difficulty of rearing such 

 insects is to keep the right degree of 

 moisture in the soil. If too damp, fungi 

 grow and envelop the insects; if too dry, the larvae soon die. For the study 

 of insects that live on the roots of live plants Comstock has devised a special 

 form of breeding-cage known as the root-cage. "In its simplest form this 

 cage consists of a frame holding two plates of glass in a vertical position 



FIG. 



81 1 . Soap - box breeding - cage. 

 (After Comstock.) 



