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I am told that it is an excellent plan to enclose the pair in a good 
sized muslin or leno sleeve on a branch, or even an entire young tree 
of the food plant, but this 1 have never been able to put in prac- 
tice ; at all events it can do no harm, and may do good to insert a 
branch in water into the breeding cage. Again, Mrs. Hutchinson, 
of Leominster, tells me that she always feeds the moths she is 
keeping alive for this purpose, as well as the impregnated females 
kept for laying eggs, by sprinkling the usual sugaring mixture on 
the leaves of the spray of the food plant, and that she finds it a 
very good plan. 
While on this ]>art of my subject, I must touch upon a point 
which has been much debated, viz., whether it is advisable to put 
in more than one of either or of both sexes. My own oj)inion is 
decidedly in the negative. I have always found that when I put 
in two males, the result was a great disturbance in the cage and 
nothing else, while if two females were present they seemed to 
distract the attention of the males, so that every trial ended in 
failure. 
I may mention that it is extremely important that both male 
and female should be but recently emerged fTOin the chrysahs. I 
once paired a Trepida female, which had been out five days, with 
a male just emerged, and the pan- of Cucullina alluded to above as 
having paired in a collar box, had been out — the male four days, 
and the female six ; but as a rule, after two or three days, an 
insect becomes useless for breeding purposes. 
Another frequent cause of failure is the fact that after being 
bred in and from the same stock, sooner or later, all moths refuse 
to pair. Some do so after the second, or even after the first gene- 
ration, and all are more or less affected by it. In this case 
nothing remains but to mix the breed, either with those reared by 
some friend from a different stock, or still better by pairing with 
wild males. If the species occurs in the neighbourhood this may 
often be readily done — the modus operandi being simply to tie 
a piece of fine silk firmly round the base of one of the front Anngs, 
and having thus secured it to a tree where the insect is supposed 
to fly, to leave it all night. If the night be favourable, very often 
the male will bo found with it in the morning, so that besides a 
batch of fertile eggs, you secure an additional specimen. Some- 
times, however, a bat, or some such nocturnal marauder, Avill find 
