habitation thus formed they remain throughout the day. The latter are more easy to see than the more readily evicted contingent. All we have to do is to stand under the branches and look upwards and outwards, when the united leaves and the form of the caterpillar between them will be detected. Some, of course, will be high up and out of reach in the ordinary way, but there will be others more accessible. Then, at night, especially in the early spring, we may search, aided by the beam of an acetyline lamp, the plants and undergrowth in wood rides and clearings, borders of woods, and lanes, for caterpillars that are arousing from hibernation. Throughout all searching operations for larvæ the chance finding of eggs under leaves or on twigs or buds is always probable. Cocoons in addition, among the leaves of trees and on stems of low plants and the trunks of trees, may also be revealed.
Fig. 16.
Caterpillar of Pale Tussock-moth.
Furnished with a trowel—the ordinary garden kind will do, but the flatter pattern, sold by dealers, is better—the collector may take a turn at digging at the roots of trees for chrysalids. No doubt there are many kinds to be obtained in this way, but I cannot say much for the practice, as my own efforts have not been very highly rewarded. Not a single species was ever obtained by digging that I could not have secured more easily in some other way.
Methods of setting, and after-manipulation have been fully discussed in "Butterflies of the British Isles."