416 INSECTS AT HOME. 



really perfect specimens is to rear thera from the caterpillar. 

 LaboTireis are not mucli afraid of the caterpillar, though they 

 are of the perfect insect, and tlie easiest mode of obtaining 

 both the larva and the pupa is to go to a potato-field in which 

 the labourers are at work, and oifer a small sum for uninjured 

 ' locusts ' and ' ground-grubs.' 



It will be as well to take a pupa in order to show them the 

 exact ol)ject that is wanted. Drawings, however faithful, are, I 

 find, utterly useless, the uneducated eye being absolutely unable 

 to comprehend them. Some time ago, wanting a few living 

 specimens of the Flour Beetle {Tenebno molitor), described on 

 page 146, 1 made some careful coloured drawings of the insect, 

 took them to different bakers, and asked them to procure some 

 specimens. I do not know whether baking is a business that 

 atfects the human intellect or the human eye, but in every case 

 the bakers brought me a paper bag full of cockroaches. And 

 even when the different size, colour, and shape of the two 

 insects was pointed out, the bakers in question could not be 

 made to understand but that one insect ' would do ' as well as 

 another. 



The caterpillars of the Death's Head Moth being obtained, 

 and a continual supply of fresh potato-leaves ensured, they 

 should be kept as much as possible in the dark. When they 

 are full-fed they should be placed on light soft earth, into 

 which they will burrow, and undergo their transformations 

 underground. It is as well to plant in the soil a few sticks up 

 which the Moth can climb when it emerges, and to which it 

 can cling while it dries its wings. Care must be taken to keep 

 the earth moderately moist, placing damp but not wet moss 

 upon it. Unless this precaution be taken, the outer skin of 

 the pupa will become so hard that the insect will not be able 

 to make its way out when it is fully developed. I have lost 

 several Moths in this way, and have had one or two in a very 

 maimed and imperfect condition, their wings being quite 

 shrivelled, and scarcely one-sixth their proper size. 



Against this evil the Moth-breeder can easily guard, but 

 there is one against which he is powerless, and that is the 

 presence of the ichneumon-fly, which has been described on 

 page 322. It is impossible to obviate or ameliorate this 

 danger, for, even if there were any indications of the parasite's 



