Collecting and Rearing Insects 
643 
meat-safes (Fig. 810), which can be got at the grocer’s for about a dollar apiece. 
Comstock describes a good home-made cage built by fitting a pane of glass 
into one side of an empty soap-box. A board, three or four inches wide, 
should be fastened below the glass so as to admit of a layer of soil being 
Fig. 810.—Meat-safe live-cage. 
placed in the lower part of the cage, and the glass can be made to slide, so 
as to serve as a door (Fig. 811). The glass should fit closely when shut, 
to prevent the escape of the insects. 
We have even made use in our laboratory of pasteboard shoe-boxes 
with the middle part of the cover cut out (leaving but an inch or so around 
the edges), and mosquito netting pasted 
over the hole. Into such a box fresh 
leaves must be put often, but beyond 
the trouble it serves very well. Specially 
made rearing-cages (Fig. 807) of various 
kinds can be bought of dealers in natural¬ 
ist’s supplies, but they are mostly rather 
expensive. 
For larvae that live underground 
cages with soil in must be provided. 
The principal difficulty of rearing such 
insects is to keep the right degree of 
moisture in the soil. If too damp, fungi 
grow and envelop the insects; if too dry, the larvae soon die. For the study 
of insects that live on the roots of live plants Comstock has devised a special 
form of breeding-cage known as the root-cage. “In its simplest form this 
cage consists of a frame holding two plates of glass in a vertical position 
Fig. 
811. — Soap - box breeding - cage. 
(After Comstock.) 
