LEARN HABITS OF RARE SPECIES. 



When you discover rare varieties of lepidoptera, make strenuous efforts 

 to obtain large numbers of specimens. Dr. William Barnes, of Decatur, 111., 

 writes: "Even the rare species are, as a rule, common enough. The only 

 trouble is to find the right time and place and learn their habits. For example, 

 there is a small moth found in Colorado, a beautiful thing, with red wings 

 and a yellow body. Now Bruce, an old collector, whom your father has 

 heard of, and myself had collected all around that locality for several years 

 and never ran across it, and yet it was there and common all the time. Osier 

 and his wife were out one day collecting and she picked one of those red field 

 daisies just because it was pretty, and while she was idly picking the petals 

 off it she saw one of these moths sitting down in the flower, its red wings 

 matching exacting the color of the flower. They then looked around on the 

 daisies and soon had a couple of them, and there is no trouble at all for any 

 one to get them now, but the moth did not come to sugar or light and did not 

 fly in the daytime, so Bruce and I had entirely overlooked it." 



PREPARE YOUR LISTS. 



Many letters ask "what do you wish from this locality?" There are 

 fields which have been so well worked that published lists can be obtained 

 of the species to be found in those localities. This is the exception, however, 

 rather than the rule. Several hundred collectors have visited Truckee because 

 it is on the Central Pacific and in the center of a great tourist resort. Many 

 rare species are known to exist here and most entomologists could name species 

 which they would gladly purchase. But if I asked these learned men what 

 species they wanted from Meadow Lake, Webber, Independence, or any of 

 the mountain lakes twenty miles northward, few could answer. In other words, 

 the science of entomology is in its infancy, and perfect lists of moths and 

 butterflies have been published of few localities. New species abound in almost 

 all regions, and that is why the business of the butterfly farmer can be profitably 

 carried on almost anywhere. You must prepare the lists of your own neigh-; 

 borhood. When you capture a butterfly or moth compare it with those 

 figured in the plates of Holland's books and see if you can name it. If you 

 are in doubt, send it to me or to some one else who will correctly identify 

 it. Write down the names of all kinds that you discover. When dealers 

 and purchasers receive these lists they can intelligently inform you what they 

 wish to buy. 



CARE DURING HATCHING PERIOD. 



Do not allow too many adults to emerge from cocoons in the same cage 

 at the same time. In struggling to find suitable places to hang while their 

 wings are drying they crawl over and damage each other. Their sharp claws 

 cut gashes in each other's wings. Again, when many specimens have emerged 

 in one cage on the same morning, the wings of some will dry sooner than others, 

 and their fluttering about the cage will injure the wings and plumage of their 

 mates. Any paper box which is large enough to allow the wings to expand 

 will answer for a hatching cage, hence there is no excuse for overcrowding. 

 Care should be taken that there is no litter or rubbish in the bottom of the 

 hatching cages under which the freshly hatched moths may attempt to hide 



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