of individuals from a single female as poss.ble — an essential matter in studying 

 variation and heredity — it is a great saving of labor and of the lives of the 

 infant caterpillars to have the eggs wisely distributed over the leaves of the 

 growing foodplant. I have found recently that the number of eggs laid by a 

 single female may be very largely increased in Colias eurytheme and similar 

 species, and may be placed exactly where baby caterpillars should be located 

 to begin life under the best possible conditions, by grasping the female, when 

 in a mood for laying, by the front margins of the fore wings and placing her in 

 position to lay on suitable leaves. Standing on tip toes, preferably with her 

 back to the source of light, she curves the abdomen, and deposits the egg 

 upon end in exactly the right spot. Then she may be transferred, without 

 once letting go of her wings, to another leaf. So you may go over the whole 

 plant, as with a rubber stamp, planting the eggs where you please. This, of 

 course, takes time, but it not only increases the output of eggs very materially, 

 but also avoids the crowding of caterpillars that often results in disease, and 

 makes it unnecessary to transfer the caterpillars to fresh leaves until they have 

 molted at least once. A fertile female left to her own devices seldom, or never, 

 lays all the eggs she can before old age overtakes her; and her distribution of the 

 eggs, in the species with which I am familiar, depends largely upon her activity 

 or sluggishness. If she is lively, she flies rapidly from leaf to leaf and distributes 

 the eggs well; if she is sluggish and confined, she may lay a big clump of eggs 

 on one small leaf, resulting in badly crowding the young caterpillars. I hope 

 that some of your correspondents will be interested in raising the progeny of 

 any aberrant female that they may capture or raise, and especially that they 

 will breed species that are polymorphic, that is, represented by more than one 

 variety of male or of female as in some skippers and Papilios, or by different 

 varieties at different seasons of the year as in some of the azure blues and 

 publish the census of their results. Very little is known about the origin of new 

 variations and species, or about the laws of inheritance of even the commonest 

 varietal forms. Butterflies afford the best possible material for such studies. 

 To watch and record the appearance of different varieties in a single brood has 

 all the fascination of a game of chance, added to the esthetic enjoyment of the 

 beautiful colors and forms, and the intellectual delight in seeking to follow and 

 explain the mysterious workings of evolution, the creation of new kinds of living 

 beings. I shall be glad to make more definite suggestions to anyone interested 

 in undertaking studies of this sort. 



LEPIDOPTERA OF MISSION SAN JOSE. 



I desire each pupil to send me lists of the lepidoptera of their locality. 

 The enclosed is a partial list furnished by Elizabeth Lowrie, Mission San Jose, 

 California : 



DIURNALS: 



Anosia plexippus; Argynnis calippe; Melitasa cooperi, chalcedon. palla; 

 Phyciodes pratensis,, mylitta ; Grapta satyrus ; Vanessa antiopa, californica ; 

 Pyrameis atalanta, cardui, caryae; Junonia ccenia; Basilarchia lorquini; Adelpha 

 californica; Ccenonympha californica; Satyrus boopis; Thecla melinus; Chryso- 

 phanus arota, anthoides; helloides; Lycaena acmon, piasus, exilis; Pieris protodice, 

 vernahs, rapae; Euchlce creusa, sara, reakertii; Colias eurytheme; Papilio 

 philenor, zolicaon, rutulus; Pyrgus tessellata. 



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