338 Gardening 



If you have not been successful in observing the four stages as 

 they occur in the garden, make an insect cage. This will give 

 you an opportunity to observe closely the life history of any insect 

 you wish to study. Tie a piece of cheesecloth over the top of 

 a large lantern chimney, and set this over a pot of earth. Place 

 eggs, caterpillars, or larvae of any insect within the chimney, 

 together with a few twigs and the leaves of the plant that the insect 

 you are studying feeds upon. Supply fresh leaves every day, and 

 remove any that have wilted. Observe carefully the feeding 

 habits, and watch closely the change from larvae to pupa. Note 

 whether the insect pupates above ground or below. If you have 

 started with the egg stage, keep a record of the length of time 

 between egg and pupa, and pupa and adult. 



2. To learn how the various garden insects feed. Catch a grass- 

 hopper, a cricket, a locust, or any large beetle, and examine its 

 mouth parts with a hand lens. Notice the two sets of jaws, one 

 working sideways and the other up and down. Then try to find 

 a large caterpillar (a tomato worm, a cabbage worm, or a milkweed 

 caterpillar, for example) that is actively feeding on a leaf. Ob- 

 serve carefully the method of biting off and chewing. Note 

 how rapidly the caterpillar eats and how much it consumes in a 

 meal. Could a single caterpillar consume during its life every 

 leaf on a half -grown plant ? 



With a hand lens examine an aphid, a squash bug, or a calico- 

 back cabbage bug, while feeding. Note carefully the sucking 

 beak embedded in the stem or leaf. By watching you may be 

 able to see one of these sucking insects pierce the stem or leaf of 

 the plant and settle down to feeding. 



If the insects mentioned in the above paragraph are not to be 

 found in your garden, you may be able to find one or more of the 

 following insects which will show the sucking beak just as well : 

 (i) a water boatman (an insect about half an inch long that swims 

 through the water by moving two of its legs like oars), (2) a 

 froghopper in the larval stage (look for a small insect underneath 

 a mass of bubbles on a grass stem), or (3) a cicada (harvest fly 

 or "locust")- Examine carefully the long beak used for piercing 

 and sucking. (Note. In your search for one of these insects 

 you may find the empty larval case of the cicada clinging to a 

 tree trunk or post. This will show the form of the beak as well 

 as would a live specimen.) 



