54 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS 



Magazine' (vol. ii., p. 199), is constructed on a prin- 

 ciple which seems theoretically perfectly correct ; but 

 on a very " good " night it might become so filled with 

 moths that they would mutually spoil one another. 



In some species of the Bombycina, if the collector 

 be fortunate enough to breed a female moth, he may 

 obtain any number of male specimens by simply taking 

 the female to a locality in which the insects occur. 

 This is best shown, perhaps, in the genus Lasiocampa, 

 all the males in that genus " assembling," as the phrase 

 is, very vigorously. In the genus Orgyia the apterous 

 female may be turned to a similar profitable account. 

 Individual instances will occur of other moths, not of 

 the Bombycina, being apparently attracted in numbers 

 by means of a female specimen. Once I found a dozen 

 or more of Smerinthus tilise in a summer-house in which 

 a female specimen of that insect had recently emerged 

 from the pupa. On another occasion I found a cluster 

 of eight or nine specimens of Mania maum in an out- 

 house actually overlapping one another. Other ento- 

 mologists could probably furnish analogous instances 

 from their own recollections. 



Further, it must never be forgotten that many species 

 are best obtained in the larva state, and the faculty of 

 finding larvae is best acquired by constantly searching 

 for them. Larvae resemble, sometimes very closely, the 

 substances on which they feed, and though we may 

 often obtain them in quantity by the simple use of a 

 beating-stick, yet it is worth spending a little extra 

 time to find them by the eye, as by so doing we have a 

 better chance of learning something of their habits. 

 Of late years, much (indeed, thanks to the Rev. J. 

 Hellins, I may say very much) has been done in rearing 



