800 CATER PILLARS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 November 1923, Page 1

800 CATER PILLARS.

LONDON. Aug. KL In a large garden in Bexley, Kent, a hard-working woman i- bringing up family of SOU infants. They are not human babies. Init the young of the While,” the white butterfly which is so ol ten seen Hitting ahout in summer weather. She has undertaken the taslt to assist her husband, Mr Leonard Newman, who has a caterpillar and butterfly “farm” at Bexley. A lit Lie While ago Mr Newman received an order for 1,110(1 pupae (chrysalides) of the Common While foi educational purposes. As lie was going nwav he handed over to his wile the, task of collecting the majority of LOOP, eggs, hatching them', and rearing the caterpillars. Yesterday she told a reporter that she had caught some Jo or o 0 of the butterflies in her garden, and had putt them inside nets covering cabbage plants, on which they lay their eggs. •*l'n 10 days 1 have obtained from the butterflies some 800 eggs, ' she said. “1 have had to keep the plants moist, and feed the butterflies with a pad damped with sugary water placed on the outside of the net, and with flowers placed inside it. “To prevent the young larvae from being scorched by the heat it has been necessary to shade them with an umbrella, big leaves or branches. I expect a good many of my cabbages will he eaten by the time the 800 caterpillars have developed to pupae.” At the farm some 30,000 caterpillars are fed in a year, and of these some 5,000 to 0.000 are sold.