10 



Species that cling to the leafless steins of trees and shrubs do well 

 in the ordinary cages, the twigs being plugged into the wells 

 and the base of the cage filled with damp sand. Acidalidge do 

 extremely well on damp sand covered with moss and dead leaves, on 

 which is sprinkled such food as is available, and watered once a 

 week. I have taken many Noctua^ through most successfully in 

 flower-pots half filled with sand covered with moss, tied over with 

 leno, and placed on a window-ledge. 



Pupae I remove to a pupa cage kept indoors. This cage consists 

 of a box I foot square and 6 inches deep, with a lid 3 inches deep. 

 It is divided from top to bottom into four compartments, the bottom 

 of each of which is formed of a square of perforated zinc in a wooden 

 frame, the top of each being also a frame with a piece of calico glued 

 into a rebate and protected inside with a square of i-inch wire net 

 secured with wooden fillets. The whole interior is left unplaned. 

 Some gravel is baked, and the larger stones packed over the perfo- 

 rated zinc, and the smaller stuff over them. Some sifted earth, also 

 baked, is placed over this, and some scalded moss pressed well down 

 on it. On the moss the cocoons or pupje are placed, and covered 

 with more moss. In this cage all pupce, from the smallest to the 

 largest, do well. The larger species very much appreciate the wire 

 net, making for it at once and, hooking themselves up by their 

 tarsal claws, swing clear of everything, the result being wonderfully 

 few cripples. I make a practice of spraying the moss once a week 

 during winter, and oftener, whenever necessary, in summer. The 

 only drawback is the pupae are sometimes attacked by fungus, but I 

 have not yet ascertained if the fungus attacks living pupae ; my 

 impression is that only the dead pupae are liable to it as a rule. I 

 have removed mildew from pup^x with a paint brush moistened with 

 dilute carbolic, and reared the moth from them. 



Subterranean pupne, as a rule, I leave in situ till they are due to 

 emerge. I then dig them up and separate the cocoons, which are 

 often in such close masses that a number of insects would be unable to 

 emerge if left in the larva cage. Cocoons spun in the food I cut out 

 and place on the surface of the moss in the pupa cage. I make it a 

 rule to remove all pupae above earth to the pupa cage as soon as 

 they are hard enough to handle. They are there out of the way of 

 Chalcids, which I have found to be most destructive, having lost whole 

 broods from these little pests making their way through the perforated 

 zinc and attacking the pupae in their cocoons. 



To combat the difficulty of damping the pupje I have been trying 

 the experiment of placing such as are without cocoons in shallow 

 porcelain dishes containing a little sand. The dishes are embedded 

 in moss in the pupa cage, and the moss freely damped. When due 

 to emerge the pupae are covered with a layer of moss. 



