17 
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY. 
NOTES ON BREEDING OUR GRASS-FEEDING BUTTERFLIES. 
(Read March 15th, 1910, by C. P. PICKETT, F.E.S.) 
For the past nine years I have been much interested in the life- 
histories of most of our grass-feeding butterflies. Many entomo¬ 
logists are satisfied to catch them, but there is a still greater fascina¬ 
tion in breeding them from the egg. When I first started I was told 
I should find it a difficult task, but I think by the time I finish these 
notes you will say I found it comparatively easy. Where do our 
butterflies lay their eggs in nature ? It is easy to see them flying 
about amongst the herbage, looking for a suitable place to lay, but try 
and find the ova afterwards, and even if you have carefully marked 
them down, you will find it is by no means easy, and only by long 
and patient searching are they discoverable ; so wonderfully does 
nature play her part in concealment that many an entomologist has 
given it up for the easier method of catching the imagines. But the 
next best thing is to try and get them to lay in confinement, for 
which purpose three things are essential — 1st, and most important, 
the sun; 2nd, plenty of room and air; and 3rd, growing foodplant. 
I started with these three points in view. The first was easily got 
over; the second was secured by the use of large roomy cages about three 
feet square, covered with white tiffany or muslin (using white helps 
to keep the foodplant fresh), and glass fronts; as for the third, I 
planted some ordinary grass seed in about 30 flower-pots of all sizes, 
from thumbs to four inches, and gently watered them and placed 
them in my greenhouse covered with glass. Within a fortnight the 
grass was up, and after three weeks was an inch in height, and of a 
delicate green, and ready for my experiments. I placed two or three 
pots in each breeding cage ready for ova. 
My first experiment was with Pararge egeria, so a day was spent 
at Chalfont Road, Bucks, in one of the delightful woods that 
abound there, where egeria can be got in numbers. I captured 
seven females, which were placed in my cages in the garden facing 
the sun and well fed on sugar. They all laid without any trouble, 
usually two or three eggs on a blade on the underside; when 
hatched the young larvae ate the eggshell for their first meal, and 
were of a delicate green with a black head. The eggs, as placed in 
nature, are usually found on the flowers of grass, and sometimes 
on the stem just below the flowers, and are easily passed over, being 
so much like the flowers themselves. The larvae usually hide 
during the day, well down amongst the roots. I found that when 
the grass has grown about six inches high it is advisable to cut the 
tops off, which strengthens it greatly, otherwise it grows weak and 
turns yellow. A slight syringing every other day also gives the 
moisture which the larvffi usually get at night when feeding in nature. 
xx. 
