before their wings are fairly dry. This is especially applicable to the smaller 

 varieties, which are apt to try to conceal themselves from the light while their 

 wings are still limp, and are thus deformed. Many species develop better in 

 the semi-darkness of covered paper boxes. Care and close observation during 

 the hatching period is as essential as during any other stage. It is a beautiful 

 spectacle to see a score or a hundred newly hatched adults expanding their 

 wings and making their first short flights in a cage or room, but you enjoy it 

 at the expense of many a perfect specimen. 



BUTTERFLIES CLING TO THE FINGER. 



To remove a butterfly or moth from one cage to another or to place it 

 in the cyanide bottle, grasp it with thumb and finger firmly but gently by the 

 under side of the body, at the base of the wings. This is the method usually 

 employed by collectors. If the insect is to be killed, a firm squeeze between 

 thumb and finger stuns it so that it will not flutter when placed in the bottle. 

 If you wish to handle live butterflies without exciting or disturbing them, touch 

 the under side of their head with the end of your finger and they will step 

 upon and cling to your finger. In transferring them from the hatching box, 

 or mating cage, this method is preferable, for if you grasp them with thumb 

 and finger and forcibly tear them from the place to which they are clinging 

 they are likely to be injured. Practice and experience endow the entomologist 

 with what is termed "the butterfly touch," which is the faculty of grasping and 

 handling the insect with a firm but gentle touch which does not displace the 

 delicate scales. It can not be easily described, but you will surely acquire it 

 by experience. Until you do so it is wise to always lift and transfer a live 

 butterfly or moth by letting it crawl upon and cling to your finger. 



HATCHING BY ARTIFICIAL HEAT. 



Sometimes adults emerge from pupa much earlier if forced by artificial 

 heat. Investigations are being constantly conducted along these lines by scien- 

 tists and pupae are sometimes kept in ovens, at an even temperature, to hasten 

 the hatching period. If it were possible to have the large silk moths emerge 

 at Easter, there would be a great demand for them, alive, to liberate in the 

 establishments of florists, or in show windows, or at balls and grand functions. 

 If certain species could be hatched out during the Christmas holidays they 

 would find a ready market for these purposes. Specimens whose hatching 

 period is forced by keeping the pupa in artificial heat are apt to vary in color 

 from the normal, and such variations are highly prized by scientists. There 

 is a broad field for experiment and investigation in this direction. It is a well 

 understood rule that cold retards and warmth hastens the hatching of moths 

 and butterflies. All butterfly farmers are in a position to conduct experiments 

 of this kind with pupae of different species, and to obtain results which might 

 be of great scientific and financial value. 



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