<The f)mmg Naturalist: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 83. 



JUNE 11th, 1881 



Vol. 2. 



REARING LEPIDOPTERA 

 FROM THE EGG. 



WE need scarcely say that eggs of 

 Lepidoptera hatch, without any 

 process of incubation. It is not neces- 

 sary therefore that any special care be 

 ; taken of them to cause the appearance 

 i of the larvas. All that you must do is 

 to see that when they do hatch you 

 have a supply of food ready. Never- 

 theless it is quite possible to hasten or 

 retard their development, and while 

 you may in some cases get an extra 

 brood in the season, by forcing them 

 on in their various stages, you must 

 always be careful with those species 

 that remain in the egg state over the 

 winter, or whose eggs are laid in the 

 early months of the year, not to en- 

 courage them to hatch until the food 

 can be procured. You will do well, 

 therefore, to keep all the eggs out of 

 doors during winter, for even the 

 temperature of a cold room is above 

 that of the open air, and will make 

 your eggs hatch before you are ready 

 for them. Even with the greatest care 

 you will not always avoid this, and 

 when it happens you must do your 



best to find food for your young larvae. 

 Give them the unopened buds of the 

 food plant , selecting in preference those 

 most developed, or give some substitute 

 food, if procurable, on which we will 

 speak further on. Kemember, too, 

 that your young larvae can bear cold, 

 perhaps better than you can, and that 

 they do not require so much food when 

 at a low temperature. You will there- 

 fore be able to keep them with very 

 little to eat in cold weather, if they are 

 out of doors, until the advance of vege- 

 tation enables you to procure what 

 they require 



We have, already spoken of glass- 

 capped boxes, as being best to keep 

 your laying insects in. You can watch, 

 not only the laying process, but the 

 development of the eggs themselves. 

 Nearly all eggs change colour before the 

 young larva? appear, and by watching 

 for this change, you can always be 

 ready for them when they come. 

 When the eggs have been deposited in 

 an ordinary chip box on leno, &c, we 

 always find it best to cut whatever they 

 are on, into small fragments, with the 

 eggs on them, and put them in one of 

 those small wide-mouthed bottles, sold 



