6996 Insects, 



stretched (for the sake of more light and better ventilation) domewise 

 over a couple of bent canes, the ends of which are stuck into the 

 earth in the pot, and fastened with — not string — but an elastic band. 

 Of course cages with glass sides would be best for continuing one's 

 observations, but, where one has a number of species feeding at one 

 time, a corresponding number of cages would entail a great expense. 

 My nursery has, for the most part, been a room facing the East, the 

 window being kept partially open night and day ; a few things I put 

 out of doors, not so much for their own health as that of the plants on 

 which they were feeding, and which would have needed renewal 

 oftener if kept in the house. 



Perhaps I ought to say that my experience has been chiefly confined 

 to Borabyces and Geometrge, and for these reasons : — I do not sugar, 

 and I cannot induce the few Noctuae that do fall into my hands to 

 part with their eggs, whilst I find Geometrse to be, in this respect, 

 almost as generous as Bombyces. A female moth shut up in a pill- 

 box is almost sure to give you eggs, and if a sprig of the proper food 

 be put in with her she will deposit them on that; you have then, on 

 noticing a change in their colour, only to place sprig and all on the 

 growing plant, and the larvae will walk on to their pasture, without 

 your having to hunt them about with a feather or camel's-hair pencil, 

 neither of which perhaps feels quite so soft to their skins as it does to 

 our own. When the food is unknown I think it is best to allow the 

 larvae to be hatched in the pill-box, and then give them their choice 

 by putting in small bits of six or seven different things, such as oak, 

 sallow, birch, bedstraw, chickweed and dandelion (the food of allied 

 species in some degree guiding one's selection) ; in a few hours, except 

 perhaps in the case of some aristocrats who are squeamishly select, 

 sundry little holes and notches will appear in the object of their 

 choice, and their owner's feverish anxiely may begin to subside. It 

 is a guess of mine that most of the unknown larvae feed on 

 low plants, for were they to be found on shrubs or trees they 

 would have been dislodged thence before now by some energetic 

 collector. 



Below is a list of the species about which I have at present any 

 remarks to offer ; but, before I stop my pen, I wish to be allowed — as 

 a "mere collector" — to give a shove to the movement now on foot, 

 towards giving us improved descriptions. 



While some species seem fixed to one type, for others it is not 

 enough to describe, — not to say a single larva, — but any number of 

 individuals, if belonging to the same brood; and in others again 



