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PRACTICx\L HINTS ON BREEDING MACRO- 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



Read March \A,th, 18S9, by Mr. W. H. TUGWELL. 



Practical hints on breeding Macro-Lepidoptera is the sub- 

 ject of my short paper this evening, and before commencing 

 I must apologise to those gentlemen present, whose expe- 

 rience is possibly far greater than my own ; but as these 

 remarks are intended for beginners, I trust they may prove 

 of some little interest to them, and if so my object will be 

 fully attained. 



When I commenced the study of our Macro-Lepidoptera, 

 early in 1842, the breeding of insects was rarely practised 

 in England, and very little indeed was known of the larvae 

 of our native species, so that when in 1857 Mr. H. T. 

 Stainton published his well-known manual, he had mainly 

 to depend on Continental authors for the description of the 

 larvae therein referred to; and even with that aid a con- 

 siderable number appeared to be quite unknown, as the 

 following rough table will show. Stainton gives some 769 

 species of Macro-Lepidoptera, i.e., from tlie Diurni to the 

 end of the Geometra^ : — 



Total 769 113 526 130 



We could hardly feel proud of that state of our know- 

 ledge, but it is now, happily, very much improved. The 

 number of larvae described by the joint efforts of British 

 Lepidopterists has wonderfully increased, whilst the list of 



