Notes on Rearing Lepidoptera. 



By A. M. Montgomery. Read February zZth. 



I FEEL I ought to make some explanation and apology for my 

 presumption in contributing a paper on the rearing of Lepidoptera to 

 such a society as ours. However, if you will have the patience 

 to listen while I explain the methods I adopt, and then freely 

 criticise them, I shall benefit by the discussion as much as any one. 



First, a few words on eggs and means of obtaining them from 

 brood females. Butterflies, as is well known, require sunshine and 

 the presence of their larval food plant to induce them to oviposit. 

 For the smaller species I use a bottle cage, such as I first saw used 

 by our friend Mr. Mansbridge. A pint white glass circular bottle 

 with the bottom cut off, and a slice of the cork (say \ inch thick) 

 thrust into the neck, is placed neck foremost into a gallipot of a 

 suitable size. A spray of the food plant is plugged with cotton wool 

 into a hole in the cork, so that the end reaches some water in the 

 gallipot. Put in two teaspoons of sand, covering the cork and 

 shoulders of the bottle, and damp it slightly. Next put in the 

 butterfly, and cover with mosquito net or leno, secured with a new 

 black india-rubber band (12, Faber's). If a red or old black band is 

 used the sun will melt it, and the insect escape. Place the cage on 

 a sunny upstairs window-ledge out of the way of cats and inquisitive 

 errand-boys. For the larger species I use a larva cage, which I 

 shall refer to later on. The base is filled with sand, the food 

 plugged into the well, and the perforated zinc lid replaced with 

 mosquito net. It must be borne in mind that too much sun under 

 these conditions will kill the butterfly and the ova as well, so if the 

 weather is hot and the sky cloudless the cage must be exposed for 

 short intervals only, and care taken to keep the sand damp. In the 

 evening, or sooner if necessary, feed the butterfly, and either remove 

 it to a fresh cage or take out the food plant on which are ova, and 

 insert a fresh spray. I have kept Chrysopha7ius phla'as alive in the 

 bottle cages for twenty-six days, the first of her progeny pupating the 

 next day, and in the larva cages have kept Argymiispaphia for a month. 

 The Satyridae may be induced to oviposit in a white glass 3-lb. jam jar, 

 in which is a tuft of grass (such as comes up with praiseworthy persist- 

 ency in flower beds) set in damp sand, a piece of mosquito net keeping 

 the butterflies in and vermin out. As long as the sand is not too 

 wet the grass will flourish for weeks in the jar. When the butterflies 

 are dead replace the mosquito net with linen (old handkerchief), and 

 keep the jar in a light but not sunny place, and the resulting larvag 

 will need no more attention till they are well advanced in life. 



The bottle cages can be used with great success with Ei/pithecia, 



