Hibernating Larve 
do it once to see the havoc. Shut up in a tin—even 
a tin with plenty of air-holes—the larve begin to 
“sweat”; they get wet and uncomfortable, and by the 
time you reach home most of them will be dead or 
much the worse for their treatment. A few twigs of 
the food-plants should be placed in the tins with the 
larve to give them foothold and food until home is 
reached, when the first care must be to place the speci- 
mens in roomier quarters, 
The caterpillars of a few species are undoubtedly 
cannibals, but such are not many ; the only instance of 
eerie of which I have had personal experience 
was in connection with larve of the large green 
Geometra papilionaria (Plate XII., Fig. 17), and they 
were at their worst in their earlier stages, just when it 
was most difficult to notice anything wrong. But with 
abundance of room and fresh food this evil can be 
reduced to a minimum. 
But there are other ways of finding larve, and getting 
them in quantity too. 
A large number of caterpillars hibernate, but many 
of them are very small; upon the whole these are 
difficult to bring shececsaiile through under artificial 
conditions, and if you have a fair chance of finding 
them again when the spring is advanced, it is better to 
leave them until that season in their natural habitat, 
and secure them when they have started to feed again. 
I have found caterpillars whose usual food-plants are 
among low-growing herbage, and even some which 
ultimately take to trees and bushes, breaking their fast 
7 
