Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan.

  • F. Martin Duncan
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Our insect friends and foes / by F. Martin Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/348 page 25
    The apparatus necessary for the collecting and study of insect life need not be costly or particularly elaborate. Indeed, there are few branches of Natural Science which in the first instance require so small an expenditure on the part of the would-be investigator. The first point for consideration is the provision of suitable cages, in which our living specimens . may be safely housed and kept under observa- tion. Light, air, and a constant, fresh supply of food are all important factors if we are to successfully rear the larvae of Butterflies and * Moths. For this reason, it is a good plan when possible, to have the natural food-plants growing in the garden. If circumstances will permit of this, matters will be a great deal simplified, for all we shall have to do with the Caterpillars we have collected during our country ramble will be, in entomological parlance, to ‘^sleeve” them out on to their natural food-plant. ^‘Sleeving” consists of placing a butter-muslin I bag over the food-plant, in such a way that the Caterpillars may have the benefit of feeding upon the growing plant without being able to make their escape. The muslin '^sleeves” I should be of fairly ample proportions, and I have an opening at each end capable of being [ tightly closed by a tape or string. In use, the ^ sleeve ” is drawn over the food-plant, and its 1 lower end tied securely to the stem ; the larvae 5 are then introduced, and the upper end of the ^ sleeve” pulled up tight by means of the tape 3 or string which is run around the mouth of the sleeve.”
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