40 
MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. 
netting securely round the top of the barrel. This simplifies the 
rearing of larvse and gives them conditions almost exactly the same 
as they enjoy in a free state. A great many specimens may be reared 
at one time in this simple manner. 
If the insects are eartli-loving species and desire to complete their 
transformations in the ground, they must have an opportunity to do 
so, and should be placed in a box with loam when fully grown. 
Many will spin cocoons, others will attach their naked chrysalides 
to the twigs of the food plant. Great care must be taken with the 
larvae to protect them from their natural enemies, the ichneumon flies, 
which are constantly on the watch for an opportunity to deposit their 
eggs in or on them. For this reason they should not be exposed out 
of doors unless covered with fine-meshed netting. 
The cocoons may be kept in a wooden box in the cellar during 
the winter months. The naked pupa, including those which have 
transformed in the soil, may be placed in tin cans (ordinary fruit 
cans will answer) without any soil or loam and kept in the cellar 
also. These should have the covers put on to prevent the pupse 
becoming too dry, as they are almost sure to do if not covered tight. 
In this way their preservation is a simple matter, and their loss by 
drying or mould is completely done away with. In the spring the 
cocoons may be tied on strings and hung in the attic, where they will 
hatch without trouble. 
The naked pupse may also he removed to the attic and allowed to 
remain in the tin cans until a short time before the fly should emerge, 
when the pupse may be placed in a good-sized wooden box, on (not 
in) damp earth, with a few leaves covering them, and allowed to 
hatch. The box may be covered with netting to prevent the escape 
of the perfect insects. A few twigs placed among the chrysalides 
will enable the newly hatched flies to suspend themselves so that 
their wings will develop in the normal manner. 
