Chase—Length of Life of the Larva of the Wax Moth. 265 
from partly grown larvae, and oil paint and colored balsam did 
not dry quickly enough. Finally two satisfactory solutions were 
found: the one, a wood-alcohol solution of shellac colored with 
gentian violet, safranin, methyl green, or other aniline dye; the 
other, a water solution of gum arabic colored with the same dyes. 
The earliest larvae successfully to complete their life history were 
marked with the first solution. On the smallest larvae, the gen¬ 
tian violet, turning to a maroon color when used, was found 
most satisfactory, but for the older and darker larvae a bright 
safranin was more conspicuous. Experimentation with a spray 
or vaporizer, which would obviate the necessity of so much hand¬ 
ling of the larvae, was then tried. In this gum arabic was used. 
After some practicing, it was found easy to mark the tiny newly 
hatched larvae, transferring them with a soft camel’s hair brush 
from their receptacles to a cover slip, spray them, and put them 
into a slide. This method was used only for the first instar, the 
rest having to be marked by brush, and it had about the same 
percentage of success as the other. 
It was found that eggs in masses gave a larger percentage of 
larvae than if placed singly, and they were therefore allowed to 
remain in masses and the larvae were separated. The most suc¬ 
cessful method of rearing them was to put two to six in the same 
compartment. In the last experiments three or four individuals 
from one brood of larvae were marked with different colors and 
put together in a slide. The survivors, when old enough, were 
then separated. From about a hundred marked in the last of 
February, four lived to complete their life histories as shown in 
table 1. A later attempt with the spray on another group was a 
complete failure. The last trial was made with about fifty lar¬ 
vae, using slides which had been used before and were not cleaned 
out, and then putting from one to six larvae, all marked alike 
with vaporizer or brush, into one slide. This was the most suc¬ 
cessful. The larvae after the first ecdysis had, of course, to be 
separated, and this resulted in some irregularities. Tables 1 and 
2 show in tabulated form the results of all the life-history experi¬ 
ments. 
Table 1 contains the records of the larval ecdyses. The ma¬ 
jority of the life histories show either eight or nine ecdyses, al¬ 
though two, as far as could be discovered, had only seven. The 
number of ecdyses and the length of larval and pupal life seem 
to bear no relation to the sex of the moth, for both sexes were 
