108 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
moderately dry, when they may be returned to the tins, until about a month of the 
time of the appearance of the insects; they ought then to be placed in a box, 
with a hole cut in the lid, and covered with wire or gauze. 
Larvae that feed in leaves—such as nepticulae—require the leaves to rolled in 
soft paper ; when the larvae are full-fed, they will quit the leaves, and make their 
cocoons either among them or upon the paper; the latter require to be cut out 
(attached to portions of either leaf or paper), and kept in small, tightly-corked 
bottles. 
Of Lithocolletis, the portion of leaf containing the pupae requires to be cut out, 
and the pupae (still in the mined portion of the leaf) enclosed in a tightly-corked 
bottle. In this manner they may be kept the whole winter, without drying up, 
provided the bottle is kept constantly moist. 
The extremely-interesting genus Coleophora require, to insure success, open- 
air feeding. The plan I adopt is the following :—I obtain several round tin cases, 
about nine inches deep, by five in diameter, with lids whose rims slip on outside 
the cases; I then cut out the whole circumference of the lid, to within about half 
an inch of its edge, and, procuring a piece of calico or linen, I place it flat over 
the mouth of the tin case ; I put on the lid, pressing it down, which, necessarily, 
draws the calico tight, and your Coleophora breeding-cage is then complete. When 
wanted for use, put about two inches of earth in the bottom of the tin; in the 
centre of this put a small tumbler, or wide-mouthed bottle, containing the food, 
placed in water; put the larvae on the top of their food; cover them (as before 
explained) ; put the whole out into the open air, in a cool place, out of the reach 
of the sun, and you will have no reason to complain of want of success, if they 
are supplied with sufficient food. 
LARVJ3 THAT FEED IN BUDS OR SHOOTS OF PLANTS. 
Place the buds or shoots containing the larvae upon the bottoms of one or more 
tumblers; tie them tightly over with a piece of old calico or linen, and place them 
out in the air, away from the sun. As the larvae devour the shoots or buds they 
originally inhabited, they will begin to crawl about in search of food ; place some 
fresh food upon the top of the old; and, as they leave the old, they will enter 
the fresh shoots, which they must be supplied with, until full fed, in the same 
manner. 
Larvae in the roots of plants require the food-plant to be replanted, either in the 
open ground or in large garden- pots, until the end of spring, when they must be 
taken out of the ground, and placed, with moist earth, in a deep breeding-cage ; 
or, if planted in pots, both pot and plant can be conveniently set standing in a 
large breeding-cage, until the perfect insects have been bred. The best time for 
collecting larvae in roots is in January and February. Larvae that feed in the 
folded leaves of plants (such as the larvae of Peronea hastiana upon sallow) re¬ 
quire somewhat different treatment. 
The method adopted by the London entomologists in rearing the larvae of Peronea 
hastiana is as follows : — 
Procure a large box, say of the following dimensions :—two feet long, eighteen 
inches wide, and one foot deep, fitted with a frame about one inch and a half wide, 
dropping into a rabbet in the edge of the box, in the same manner as the glass 
frame fits into the rabbet of a cabinet drawer ; the open space of this frame must 
be covered with a large piece of old calico, fixed to the bottom with glue; both 
ends of the box must also be bored with two or three large holes, twu or three 
inches in diameter, covered with calico or gauze. Into this box throw all your leaves 
containing Peronea larvm, as collected (I have had as much as a bushel of sallow 
leaves in one box, at one time) ; and place upon the top of the picked leaves small 
branches of sallow, in order that the larvae, when they leave the picked leaves, may 
find fresh food as they rise to the surface ; moisten the leaves in the box if they 
appear to get too dry, and stir them up, with both hands, two or three times a 
week, in order that those leaves which lie at the bottom of the box may be brought 
to the top; and, to prevent fermentation taking place in such a mass of leaves, 
when you think they have attained the pupa state (which may be known by exa¬ 
mining a few of the leaves), turn a portion of the leaves out of the large box into 
