254 ENTOMOLOGY. 



a few hours later eggs were laid. In attempting to get- 

 eggs in this manner, it would be best that a male caught 

 in the field should be introduced to a female just from the 

 chrysalis, for in the field it is these last which are sought 

 by the males. Almost always, when a pair of butterflies in 

 copulation are taken, the male will be found worn or 

 broken, while the female is uninjured in wing and there- 

 fore must have lately left the chrysalis" (Can. Entomologist, 

 xviii. 17). 



Mr. S. Lowell Elliott very successfully mates Bombyces, 

 etc., by placing the sexes in a gauze mating-bag suspended 

 in a room through which passes a current of air from out 

 of-doors. 



Mr. Edwards also covers a branch of the food-plant with 

 a bag of fine netting, placing the female within, so that 

 she can move freely about; she should have plenty of light, 

 though not exposed to the direct rays of the sun. If the 

 plant is a small one it may be covered with a headless keg, 

 covered at one end with gauze. 



Treatment of the Eggs.— They should be kept in a not 

 too dry or overheated atmosphere, and should be so placed 

 that at its birth, without effort, the larva at once finds fresh 

 food.* 



Collecting and Rearing Micro-lepidoptera. — For col- 

 lecting and preserving these minute and delicate moths, 

 which are called by collectors Micro-lepidoptera, especial 

 instructions are necessary. When the moth is taken in 

 the net, it can be blown by tho breath into the bottom. 

 "■Then by elevating the hand through the ring, or on a 

 level with it, a common cupping-glass of about two inches 

 in diameter, or a wine-glass carried in the pocket, is placed 

 on top of the left hand over the constricted portion, the 

 grasp relaxed, and the insect permitted to escape through 

 the opening into its interior. The glass is then closed, 

 below by the left hand on the outside of the net, and may 



* Hulst and Thalenhorst in Bulletin Brooklyn Ent, Soc, ii. 63; 

 other hints are taken, sometimes verbatim, from this article. 



