INSTRUCTIONS IN LEPIDOPTERA. 
21 
the continual agitation of the branches, and may afterwards be 
found endeavouring to regain their position by crawling up the 
trunk; in the spring many larvae may be found after dusk feed- 
ingon the semi-expanded leaves of sallows and birches. 
The larva collector should be provided with one or more 
tin canisters of convenient size, in which to put the larvae he 
may meet with, and should with each, place some of the food- 
plant on which he has found it; he must, however, early 
learn to avoid the larvae of Cosmia trapezina, and Crocallis 
elinguaria , as these prefer making a dainty meal of other 
caterpillars to a more orthodox vegetarian diet. 
How to rear Lepidoptera from the pupa or larva state. 
To rear pupae collected is comparatively an easy matter. 
“ The collector should take with him a box (filled with moss) 
in which to convey the pupae, and when brought home they 
should be placed in a large box, with the inside surface rough, 
and covered with gauze or wire frame; at the bottom of the 
box should be some fine earth, on which the pupae are to be 
placed and covered with a thick layer of moss, which may 
or may not be occasionally damped. He sure to keep them 
from the sun, ” so writes Mr. Greene. 
To rear larvae requires considerable care and attention : the 
larva must be kept well supplied with fresh food ; if its food 
is allowed to become withered or mouldy, the larva cannot 
be expected to retain its health. The plan used by Mr. 
Doubleday of Epping, our most successful rearer of insects, 
ls > to get a glass cylinder and sink one end of it into a flower 
P°t in which is some white sand, the sand is kept moist and 
tbe food is stuck into it, so as to keep it fresh for some time; 
* le ^ arva is then placed on its food, a bit of gauze is tied over 
le to P °f the cylinder, and the flower-pot and cylinder being 
