514 CONTROLLING SEX IN BUTTERFLIES. 
and though I then gave her my opinion that her experiments were 
by no means satisfactory and conclusive, for the reason that many 
of the larvze experimented on died, we find her discoursing in the 
following unqualified manner in “Hearth and Home” for January 
13, 1872, in treating of Papilio asterias :— 
“When the worms become of the right size cut off their supply 
of food, and every one will produce a male butterfly! On the other 
hand even after they have left their food-plant and selected their 
place to change to the chrysalis, disturb them, make them leave 
their place, and coax them with a fresh supply of their favorite 
food, and continue to feed them for about two weeks longer, and 
all will be females!” 
Led by Mrs. Treat’s observations to test the question, I last sum- 
mer conducted a few experiments which resulted very differently 
from those recorded in the article referred to, and which, after 
briefly reviewing the article, I will detail. In waiting for some 
of these results I have been obliged to defer writing this article 
till the present time. 
In the first experiment with Papilio asterias, mentioned by Mrs. 
Treat, some of the larvee died, and we are not told whether the 
number experimented with was large or small. 
In the experiment with the same insect in 1872 we are told that 
of seventy-nine specimens that had been labeled males (a few 
chrysalides having died) three females only were produced. On 
the other hand those that were well “fed up” and labeled females, 
produced sixty-eight females and four males. The original num- 
ber so labeled is not given and it is not stated whether any Chry- 
salides failed to produce the imagines; so that we are left to infer 
that seventy-two were experimented with and that they all pro- 
duced the butterfly — a success in rearing which is remarkable. 
In the third experiment with twenty larve, nine females and 
eight males were produced, the other three failing. 
In the experiment with Vanessa antiopa more than half the larve 
died, and in the trials with Anisota rubicunda some also died 
were parasitized. : 
Now Papilio* deposits its eggs singly, and from experience - 
breeding asterias, Troilus, Turnus and Ajax, from the egs» 5 
am satisfied that it would be very difficult to get any great 
number to hatch on the same day or to become chrysalides oF 
* I use the term in the old, and not in Mr. Seudder’s, sense. 
