200 METHODS OF PRESERVING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS. 
Lichen-feeders, and those that feed in cases—concealed like those of the Caddis-worm in particles of decayed wood 
or dead leaves, will have to be looked for very carefully. When a Caterpillar or a brood of a gregarious kind has 
been discovered, it is better to leave them on the branch or plant of their own selection—covering it securely with 
a piece of gauze—than to attempt their removal. But if at a distance from home this would be impracticable, 
and in that case a ‘‘rearing cage” or box must be prepared. This is easily managed. A strong box, about two 
feet long by one broad, should be sunk to about half its depth in the ground in some sheltered part of a garden ; 
the lid is to be of wire-tissue such as meat-safes are made of, and above it is to be a sloping board or roof to 
shoot off the rain. The box is to be about half-filled with broken bits of tile and garden mould, partially covered 
over with moss. The food for each kind of Caterpillar placed in the box should, in ‘order to keep it fresh, be 
placed in a glass phial of water in the box ; and in addition to this precaution the food should be changed every 
day. If, however, the food he changed every day, the bottles of water may be dispensed with in most cases, though 
they are always of advantage. Ina box of this kind, so placed, the Caterpillars have the advantage both of open 
air and shelter ; and they either burrow in the ground at the bottom to undergo their change, or suspend them- 
selves to some branch which should be fixed for that purpose ; or they attach themselves to the sides of the box. 
Care must be taken to watch the box carefully at the time when Moths or Butterflies are expected to emerge from 
their chrysalides, as they would otherwise, when prepared to take flight, beat themselves against the wire lid and 
injure their wings. I have described boxes of this kind at much greater length in the ‘‘ Butterfly Vivarium.” * 
The eggs of Butterflies and Moths may also be placed in this rearing cage, where they will hatch 
themselves at the proper season, and if the proper food be provided for the young brood of minute Caterpillars, 
they will thrive well. The eggs of Moths and Butterflies may be found by watching the under side of leaves, &c.; 
when a mass of small and nearly spherical objects, somewhat less than a pin’s head, are observed attached 
together on a leaf, placed in straight or diagonal rows with geometrical regularity, it may in most cases be taken 
for granted that they are the eggs in question. They are sometimes found in rings, encircling branches of shrubs, 
like double or treble rows of beads. But the collector will soon have an eye to perceive and recognise his game 
under very varied aspects and circumstances. Besides this mode of collecting the eggs, there is another. Almost 
every female Moth or Butterfly that is captured, will deposit its eggs before dying ; indeed, it appears almost 
impossible to extinguish life in the female insect till this main object of its existence —the deposition of its eggs 
—has been effected. Rare and beautiful Caterpillars may often be raised in numbers from the eggs of a captured 
Moth, which it is difficult to procure in any other way, their natural haunts and habits being unknown. 
The great advantage of rearing Moths and hatching Caterpillars in this way is— first, that the specimens of 
the winged insect are necessarily much more perfect than those captured during their flight ; secondly, that 
the Caterpillars of some kinds of Moths are very common, while the Moth itself is rarely seen, and can only be 
procured by rearing it from the larva; thirdly, that some larvee may be obtained in this way from the egg 
which are, as stated above, seldom otherwise seen. 
T succeeded in procuring some magnificent specimens of the Death’s-head Moth from the Caterpillar in a 
rearing cage of thiskind. But an amateur Entomologist writes me that for that species his own method, as 
follows, is better:—‘‘ Last year I took three Caterpillars of the Death’s-head Hawk Moth; one I kept in dry 
earth, one in a box buried in the garden, and one in a box in my study, which I regularly watered twice a week : 
the last succeeded admirably, it emerged in March ; the two others appeared in the beginning of May, and were 
almost worthless.” The eggs and chrysalides of many fine Continental species not found in England, may be 
procured at Mr. Gardner’s, No. 52, High Holborn—such as the Great Emperor Moth, the handsome Butterfly 
Papilio Podalirius, and others, I have found great amusement and interest in rearing some of the finer 
Continental Lepidoptera in this manner, and then letting them fly in my garden, where they have sported for 
several days, and then disappeared ; for it does not seem possible to naturalise any new species in this way. 
Confined to a greenhouse they might, however, exist through several generations, forming a great additional 
ornament, and giving quite a new source of interest to an ordinary Conservatory. ENS 
* Now published by Mr. Bohu, York Strect, Covent Garden. 
