69 



Allowing or inducing Lepidopterous females to lay in captivity 



is a process well worth attention, and since it has been adopted by energetic breeders 

 has well repaid the almost daily care which necessarily attend and follow it. Some 

 species deposit freely enough, even when shut up in a pill box or impaled with a 

 pin, requiring no inducement to the act ; but many, unless properly managed, are 

 apt to disappoint the collector's hopes in this respect. Among those which will be 

 found to lay freely I may mention the Smerinthi, the Hepialidce, LithosidcB, Cheloni- 

 dcB, Liparidw, Bomhycidm, (indeed, most of the true Bomhyces,) Coremia, Hibemia, 

 Cidaria, and many other Geometrce, Dicranura, Closte^-a, and several Notodontidm, 

 Acronycta, Xylophasia, some of the Tceniocampas and Xanthias, the genus Pyralis, 

 Hydrocampa, Pterophorns, &c. ; others, on the contrary, require such inducements 

 as space, admission of the sun's rays, nutriment, presence of food-plant, suitable 

 cracks and surfaces in which and on which to deposit, and other conditions which 

 may from time to time suggest themselves to the observant Entomologist. 



Butterflies, as a rule, require space, admission of sun's rays, presence of food- 

 plant (especially of the flowers), air, &c., as incentives to laying, but some species, as 

 A. Galathea, Argynnis Euphrosyne, Paphia, Satyrus JUgeria, Hyperanthus, Chortohius 

 Pamphilus, &c., will generally lay freely enough if only the three latter conditions be 

 complied with ; again, the day-flying sphinges, as Macroglossa and Sesia will of course 

 require the sun's rays and space,* while some of the autumn spi^cies, as S. Convol- 

 vuli,\ A. Atropos, and C. Celerio, would probably not deposit naturally until after 

 hybernation, when they also would require space. 



The Bombyces generally lay pretty freely ; when shut up in a pill box it is 

 advisable to leave the lid a little open on one side so that the enclosed insect may 

 not be stifled, or the top of the lid may be knocked out and gauze substituted for 

 it, and kept in place by the rim of it. The tongued Bombyces, as the LithosidcB and 

 the Hook-tips, should be allowed to sip from a sponge moistened with honey and 

 water ; and to the species whose females naturally deposit eggs in bright sunshine, 

 as the day-flying Hook-tips, the sun's rays should of course have free admission. 



Many GreometrSB require nourishment, as aflforded by the damp sweetened 

 sponge, and some seem particular as to the surface upon which they deposit, one 

 seeming to like deep chinks in rough bark or slits in a chip bos, as Nyssia, Biston, 

 Boarmia ; another, as Epione, preferring a corner, such as that formed when the chip 

 of the circumference of a willow box overlaps, a third, as Cidaria, depositing at the 

 tips of any little projections from the surface, while a fourth is not satisfied unless 

 she lays her eggs among some loose texture, as the folds of muslin, and so on. 



The Noctuae more than all require the stimulus of the sweetened sponge, as 

 they are a class of insects which are apt to delay oviposition until sometimes a very 

 long period after impregnation, it not unfrequently happening that they die without 

 depositing their ova. In their case, as with the Geometers, we must first place the 

 females in a suitable chamber, such as a child's toy box loosely lined with paper 



* M. Stellaiarum deposits its eggs while on the wing as it hovers, curling its abdomen forwards 

 and upwards so as to place the epg upon the under surface of the leaf of its food-plant the bcdstraw. 

 Faeiformis |)robably does the same upon the leaves of the honeysuckle. 



t Mr. D'Orville onoe sqiiee/i'd an egg from the body of a female .S Conrolviili ivhicli hatr/ted late 

 in September ! ! ! 



