60 
your female and make a meal of her instead ; but on the whole 
this is a very profitable method of pairing, as it wastes compara- 
tively few specimens, and the eggs are almost certain to be fertile. 
I may mention that I have myself tried this plan successfully with 
Palpina and Ziczac, while Mr. Harwood informs me that he 
regularly pairs by this method many of the prominents, the 
kittens, &c. 
Having said what I had to say on this subject genemlly, I will 
now proceed to the discussion of the several groups of British 
Lepidoptera. The Butterflies seem very impracticable ; Machaon, 
and I believe one or two others, have been made to pair in confine- 
ment, but they are very hard to manage, requiring much space, 
light, and generally the presence of the food plant. 
The Hawkmoths are more easily managed ; the Privet-hawk, and 
all the Smerinthi pair vdthout much trouble, and my friend Mr. 
Pickard, of Walsingham, has for six years past kept up a breed of 
Elpenor without any difficulty, by keeping them in a very large 
vessel with a growing plant of the wUlow herb. Porcellus will 
pair occasionally but not readdy, and probably almost all tliis 
group, including the Clearwings and Burnets, may be induced to do 
so with a little management. 
Of the Bombyces, some (as B. quercus) are proverbial for the 
readiness with which the virgin female attracts the male, and 
these are, of course, easily paired ; but others, such as the Emperor 
and Lappet, though they sometimes assemble readily, are very un- 
certain in confinement. As a rule, however, all this class may be 
expected to do very well, and they are favourites for breeding 
purposes, but many of them are not to be depended upon, and 
others, as Demas coryli, which seem to pair readily out of doors in 
a sleeve, are troublesome to manage otherwise. 
Of Geometers, the large bodied species comprised in the genera 
Enomos Amphidasis, &c., are very easy to couple ; the Selenidse 
(the true Thornmoths,) also pair readily, and some of the Boar- 
midae will usually do so, but the rest, though many species have 
occasionally been known to pair in confinement, cannot, as a rule, 
be expected to do so. 
The Hooktips are all of them very hard to manage, and the 
Rev. Bernard Smith (our greatest authority on the subject,) says 
that he has rarely succeeded in pairing them. 
