nature lovers to study the aesthetic side of the science, i It is to this vast 

 multitude that the charms of butterfly farming appeal with full force. They 

 do not care to make any money out of the business. They may not care to 

 form a collection. They simply wish to revel in the bewildering beauties and 

 marvelous wonders of the insect world. 



The noxious and injurious insects are pretty well known to entomologists 

 and comprise only a small portion of the species of the butterfly world. The 

 vast majority of species will never become pests nor be a menace to vegetation 

 and these species may be propagated with safety. The intelligent nature lover 

 who raises moths and butterflies will not breed injurious insects and will add 

 nothing to the labors of the eminent men who are trying to control the ravages 

 of the gypsy moth, the tent caterpillar or the other enemies of mankind. 



CATCHING BEETLES. 



By Robert James Sims of Jefferson, Ohio. 



"Always have a cyanide bottle with you, like a watch or handkerchief. 

 Prof. Chas. Dury, of Cincinnati, was collecting a few of a "blister beetle," 

 (Meloidae) one day on his way to a funeral. He has never found any more 

 of this species since. The fact is, beetles, as a group, are very adaptable. 

 Different ones are to be found in all conceivable sorts of environments. But 

 it may be said that most species of one family or tribe, anyway, will be found 

 in one general type of place. For instance, the Tiger-beetles (Cicindelidae, 

 a small family) , are mostly lovers of hot sunshine. They nearly all run and fly 

 rapidly about bare, dry patches of ground. Each species has tastes of his 

 own; one may like best a dry, sandy road up a hillside; another lives on the 

 level sand-beaches of a lake; another on a sand-bar in a river; others the bare 

 clay banks of creeks, old gravel pits, paths in pastures, etc. They all have to 

 be caught with the net. Carabidrc (or ground-beetles, a large family), are 

 nocturnal, and you must look for them under things mostly. Comparatively 

 few are strictly diurnal. Look under old boards, rotten logs, stones, moss and 

 dead leaves, rubbish along shores of streams, lakes,, ponds, etc. A few species 

 come out towards evening to feed on the pollen of some plants (Compositae 

 especially). Under the loosening bark of logs, both moist and dry, is the best 

 place in the world to get beetles. Nearly every species of beetle, you know, 

 is commonest at some particular time." 



TIME REQUIRED IN BUTTERFLY FARMING. 



"Is the work exacting?" "Does it necessarily require much time?" are 

 frequent questions. It all depends upon what you wish to accomplish. Nature 

 lovers will desire to obtain eggs and feed larvae of a few species and this takes 

 little time. If you breed all the rare species of your region, it will take time 

 to feed the females and larvae. My mother, Leonora G. McGlashan, has 

 constantly assisted me in this work and we are both kept busy during the 

 summer. There is little to do in the winter. My mother cares for the farm 

 while I am at college. 



