4 METHODS OF PRESERVING BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS, 
fully. 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 adistance from home this would be impractic- 
able, 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 be changed every day, the bottles of water may 
be dispensed with in most cases, though they are always of advantage. In a 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 themselves 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 rearmg 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 in- 
sect till this main object of its existence—the deposition of its eggs—has heen 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 other- 
wise seen. 
I succeeded in procuring some magnificent specimens of the Death’s-head Moth from the 
Caterpillar in a rearing cage of this kind. But an amateur Entomologist writes me that for this 
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 worth- 
less.” 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 hand- 
some 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. HN. H. 
* Now published by Mr. Bohn, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. 
