enquiries (ts to breeding Selenia illustraria. 33 



Moths. — Double-brooded moths are very apt to be influenced as 

 to the time of their appearance by temperature. In an unusually 

 warm season if kept out of doors, and in an ordinary season if kept 

 in-doors, some of the moths will sometimes come out, or the cater- 

 pillars will spin up too soon, and the moths from them may come 

 out as a third brood. Conversely, if the temperature be very low 

 some of the larvae of the spring brood will feed up very slowly, and 

 some of the pupae go over to another year, instead of coming out as 

 a second brood. Any risk of this kind can generally be obviated by 

 moderate watchfulness, and by moving the insects to a cooler or 

 warmer situation, in or out of doors, as may be best. In the South 

 of England 8. illustraria should appear from the middle or latter 

 part of April through May, and the second brood (its pupa-stage 

 lasting only two or three weeks) in August ; any material departure 

 from these dates that may actually appear, or be threatened by the 

 rapid or slow progress of the larvae, should be counteracted by 

 shifting to cooler or warmer quarters. 



Two pairs of each of the sizes (largest-, medium-, and smallest- 

 winged), will probably be enough to produce the required number 

 of eggs, and allow for casualties. After these pairs have been 

 selected and have mated, the rest of the brood should be killed, set, 

 and arranged in a drawer or store-box, according to size, the males 

 and females separately ; the breeding pairs, when they have laid 

 their eggs, being set and put in their proper places with the rest, 

 but labelled. Each successive brood will of course be kept separate 

 from all the others. To ensure mating, the pair should be placed 

 in a round bag of muslin, &c, over a fresh spray of the food-plant. 

 A rather warm and moist air seems most conducive to activity in 

 the winged state. 



To keep moths long in a living state they should be in a moist 

 air, and have access to honey diluted with water, best supplied by 

 soaking little pieces of sponge in it. A single female of S. illustraria 

 may lay 100 eggs or upwards. The female is apt to scatter her 

 eggs over the bag if left in it ; if transferred to a jam-pot and 

 supplied with crumpled paper, she will probably lay in the creases, 

 which can then be cut out and attached to the food-plant as the 

 hatching period approaches. As it is necessary to preserve all, or 

 nearly all, of a brood of 50 or 100 moths in an unpaired but healthy 

 and vigoroiis condition till the whole brood is out, — a period which, 

 under ordinary circumstances, may last several weeks, especially 

 with the spring brood, — provision should be made beforehand for 

 this purpose. The males and females should be separated in the 

 pupa-stage (in all the species named they can easily be discriminated 

 by the different appearance of the antennas aided by the different 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1887. PART I. 'APRIL.) D 



