Clji dlanabian ^ntomologisl. 



VOL. XVI. LONDON, ONT., MAY, 1884. No. 5 



NOTES ON BUTTERFLIES, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR 

 BREEDING THEM FROM THE EGG. 



BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 



I am asked to write for the Can. Ent. a paper on breeding butterflies, 

 and on taking observations of the larval stages, and I comply with 

 pleasure, hoping that what I shall say may be the means of inducing some 

 collectors to cultivate this field. There are many local collections of 

 butterflies in Canada and the United States, and a few general North 

 American collections, mor<^ or less complete. But their owners are mostly 

 satisfied with mere collecting and accumulating specimens of the imago. 

 Very few know anything of the larval and other stages of the butterflies, 

 unless of some of the common species. And where anything is known, 

 very little is given to the world. Some collectors, however, have also 

 been breeders of butterflies, sphinges and moths on a large scale. As for 

 example, our friends, John Akhurst and Professor Julius E. Meyer, of 

 Brooklyn, each of whom could fill a good-sized volume, if they would 

 relate one half of what they know on these subjects. Such an one was 

 the late William Newman, of Philadelphia, who lived to a good old age, 

 and had spent his spare hours for many years in collecting and breeding 

 lepidoptera. But none of these gentlemen have published a line that I 

 am aware of, and the entomological world is not much the wiser for their 

 private experience. So that practically here is a great field almost 

 unworked. Even in Europe, very little systematic work has been done in 

 this department with the butterflies. Apart from mere collecting, I do not 

 see that anything of consequence remains to be done, either in North 

 America or Europe, with the butterflies, except to study their life-histories. 

 Both continents have been well explored, and only now and then can a 

 new species be found. One collection is pretty much the same as another. 

 To be sure, there is the anatomy of the butterfly or of the larva, but to 

 study that requires special training, and this few have the inclination or 

 the facilities for acquiring. But tlie study of the life history requires no 



