518 CONTROLLING SEX IN BUTTERFLIES. 
more than half had died. Stinted the rest as much as possible 
until only thirty-two entered the ground. Of these fifteen pro- 
duced males and eight females, the rest being yet chrysalides. 
6. Anisota rubieunda.— About fifty larvee of all ages, of the 
first brood, and badly stinted, gave twenty-two chrysalides; and 
these gave eleven females, seven males—the rest dying. Upwards 
of a hundred, hatched from eggs deposited in confinement by one 
of the above females and likewise stinted, gave fifty-six chry- 
salides. 
I watched these with a good deal of interest, as, from the nec- 
essarily weakened condition of the parents, I expected a large 
proportion of males; but I was doomed to disappointment, as 
but three moths — two females, one male —issued on the 21st and 
22nd of May. In examining the remaining chrysalides I find them 
all dead, and I cannot help thinking that this excessive mortality 
is attributable to the stinting process they endured as larvæ, 
more than to any other cause, as the earth containing them was 
kept in the best condition. 
While these experiments were being carried on I had many hun- 
dreds of the common silkworm (Bombyx mori) feeding on Osage 
Orange (Maclura aurantiaca) a great number of which succeeded 
admirably out-doors under netting, and others in-doors. Two id 
the lots in-doors were fed sparingly and not well cared for. No 
precise records were kept, and very many died; but of the im- 
agines obtained I recollect very well there was no dispropor- 
tionate number of males. 
On the whole, if these experiments indicate anything, they 
indicate that where more males than females are obtained ton 
stinted larvæ, it is attributable to the fact that the females, being 
largest ànd requiring most nourishment, succumb most readily 
under such treatment; rather than that the sexual characteristics 
are modified and determined by such treatment. Mrs. Treats 
facts are, in some respects, remarkable, but, bearing in mind the 
influence of the condition of the parents on the sex of the off- 
spring, it will not do to draw conclusions too rashly ; for “ides 
experienced entomologist knows that occasionally, in a particular 
brood of larvæ, one sex or the other will greatly preponderate, 
where no especial treatment was followed in the rearing. 
-a While, therefore, I do not think that the facts yet in our pos- 
_ Session, warrant the belief that the quality or amount of food has 
