REARING INSECTS. 263 



with a thick layer of moss prepared iu the same manner as 

 that beneath. The box is covered by a glass plate kept in 

 place by projections from the sides. During the winter the 

 pan of water may be dispensed with, and the box put into 

 a cellar-room with the window partly open, so that the fresh 

 moist air may penetrate, or in a cool attic; or, better, placed 

 in such a situation outside of the house that the box will 

 not receive injury, while the pupa? will be kept cool aud not 

 too damp. We have found that such a box, with water in 

 course of evaporation under it, is by far the best place to 

 keep pupge both in summer and winter. 



When the moths emerge, they are transferred by Mr. 

 Elliott to another box (or rather a series of them, for keep- 

 ing numerous specimens at the same time), with a glass 

 top, and a stick introduced on which the moth may hang 

 suspended by its feet until the wings are fully expanded 

 and the body sufficiently dried; they are then transferred 

 to the poisoning-box, and the insect is finally set, before a 

 wing has fluttered. 



Pairing or Mating Lepidoptera in Captivity. " It is 

 common enough," says Mr. W. H. Edwards, "for certain 

 Sphinges and Bombycidae to mate in boxes and immediate- 

 ly after leaving the pupas. This may happen when the 

 eggs are mature at the birth of the insect. With many 

 species of butterflies the eggs do not mature for several 

 days after leaving the chrysalis, as is the case with the 

 large Argynnids; but with others, as Phyciodes tharos, 

 nycteis, and myrina, they are mature from the start. I 

 have not experimented in this direction, but from what 

 Miss E. L. Morton, of Newburgh, N. Y., tells me, it may 

 be possible to induce butterflies of some species to mate 

 and so to obtain eggs, for the eggs are laid very shortly 

 after copulation, as I have several times observed. Miss 

 Morton had by mistake placed a male Satyrus alopc under 

 a bag of netting on grass. Three days later she introduced 

 a female, which up to that time was supposed to be the 

 second female. Almost immediately the pair mated, and 



