4 



to complete its growth. The beetles may be foimd laying eggs from May 

 until freezing weather in the fall. (The early eggs will produce larvae 

 that are full grown by September or October of the same season, and larvae 

 from the late eggs do not attain their growth until about midsummer of 

 the next season. A female beetle lays from twenty to fifty eggs. While 

 practically any farinaceoua material •^- corn meal, ground feed, cracker 

 crumbs, bread crusts -- is suitable, feeding experiments have proved that 

 wheat, in some form or other, is preferable and yields the best specimens. 

 Pill a tight box or earthen jar half full of the food material, put in 

 scraps of old leather, cover with woolen cloths, and have a lid of wire 

 screen. Put in a few hundred larvae or beetles and leave undisturbed, 

 except to insert a raw potato from time to time. If this be done about 

 April, a good supply of larvae will be obtained for use the following 

 fall* winter, or spring. 



