An Electrified Barrier for Caterpillars
Abstract
PLANT-FEEDING caterpillars are often difficult to rear in the laboratory owing to their wandering habits. Cages which will contain the caterpillars, particularly in the young stages, must be of such fine mesh that the whole environment is altered and becomes unsuitable for both plant and insect. The wandering propensities of the insects are often accentuated by the unsuitable conditions. These difficulties have been overcome, in the case of the cutworm Persectania aversa, by the development of an electrified barrier. This barrier may be only two inches high and makes little alteration to the environment while effectively preventing the escape of the caterpillars.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- October 1955
- DOI:
- 10.1038/176842a0
- Bibcode:
- 1955Natur.176..842D