THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 9 



site amount of ordinary care, I have seen caterpillars 

 preserved and kept in health till they had success- 

 fully effected their change — though, of course, 

 without affording any especial facility for observing 

 that change in the way that will be secured by the 

 glass Vivarium which I propose. 



I well recollect, for instance, at one of the 

 Wednesday evening entomological meetings, at the 

 hospitable house of the late Mr. Francis Stephens, 

 seeing a beautiful little colony of the larvae of the 

 pretty British Moth, Nyssia zonaria, in a very thriv- 

 ing and healthy state, although confined in a small 

 tin box, with no ventilation beyond that obtained 

 through a perforated lid. They were feeding upon 

 some fresh leaves of the common milfoil, their 

 natural food ; and, though the box did not appear 

 to be of sufficient depth to allow them to descend 

 into a layer of earth to undergo their change, in an 

 analogous manner to that in which the transforma- 

 tion takes place in their natural state, yet I believe 

 Mr. Stephens succeeded in obtaining several fine 

 specimens of the perfect insect from that brood, 

 especially of the female moth, which is a curious 

 wingless creature, totally different in aspect from 

 the handsome male. 



The graceful movements of those larvte of 



