Three Hundred Things a Bright Boy Can Do

by Unknown

When the ova hatch, watch them very closely, at least three or four times a day. If they are on growing food, do not touch them at all, but if they require moving for any reason, a soft, sharp-pointed camel-hair pencil is the best tool to use.

Glass jam-pots are very nice for feeding young larvæ of any kind. The method is, to change the food daily, taking care to remove at the same time all dirt made by the larvæ, which is called “frass.” Cleanliness in rearing larvæ is the first consideration, and the next most important thing is to always gather their food from the same tree as that from which they began to feed when hatched. If they are fed on growing plants this does not, of course, apply. Tie over the mouth of the pot with fine unglazed calico, and over this place a piece of glass so as to stop, as far as possible, the drying of the food plant in the jar. Be very particular to supply the fresh food always quite dry, and never in a wet condition, which is apt to give the larvæ diarrhœa, to which in captivity they are very subject. Never give more food than the young larvæ are likely to eat, increasing the supply as they get older.

When changing the larvæ always count them, or some will be lost and thrown out with the withered food. The best plan is to spread out a sheet of white paper on a table, and empty the contents of the jar on it. Then examine the interior of the jar, seeing that every little one is out. Having cleaned it out with a clean, dry duster, put in the fresh food.

Then lift in with the hair-pencil any active larvæ. Those which are sulky-looking on the leaves clip off with part of the leaf, and drop into the jar. They may be changing their skin, and, if disturbed then, will probably not recover. The food should be changed at least once every day.

While growing, larvæ of butterflies generally like plenty of light, but it is unsafe to leave the sunshine too long on the jars, in case the living contents get baked, as will the food certainly. Some species while in the larval stage, feed only at night, hiding away in the daylight. These are matters which will soon be found out by experience.

We have never heard of any one having reared all the British species through their stages, but we know one friend who reared no less than eighteen different kinds through, from ova to imagines, in a single season.

Moth Catching.—Students of natural history in search of moths which they may identify by a reference to such works upon the subject as those by the Rev. J. G. Wood, will find an interesting method of catching them in preparing “Treacles.” The fancy “golden syrups” of the kitchen should be avoided. Ask the grocer to get common treacle—green treacle they call it in the trade. To a pound of this will be added a wineglassful of stale beer and about three-quarters of a wineglassful of the most inferior rum you can buy. A few drops of oil of aniseed will improve this dreadful concoction. Do not add the rum, beer, and aniseed to the treacle at once, but keep them in a bottle apart until you are going to use the mixture.

With a companion who carries a net, look out now for isolated trees that have a rough bark. Do not waste attention on dead trees, fences, nor chestnut trees, willows, nor flowering ivy. In warm, damp weather when there is no moon, go out with a bottle of this mixture and a house-painter’s brush, “a sash tool,” as painters call it, will serve you well, and a lantern, some pill-boxes or similar small receptacles. Having selected a tree daub it well with your mixture in a patch about a foot long and half a foot broad. So pass from tree to tree. Come back at last to the first tree again. Your companion should hold the net under the treacle patch for some of the moths that have come to enjoy the rum and treacle will fall when you turn the lantern light upon them. Those that do not may be taken from the tree by an upward scoop of a pill-box, and then secured by the lid. Try to avoid getting the sticky mixture upon the handle of the brush and upon your hands, for it will prevent your deft manipulation of your pill boxes. After the first night very little treacle will be needed to freshen the patches, but the mixture may be used freely on your first round. The treacling season begins about March 21 and goes on until the end of April. May does not yield many moths, nor the first week in June, but after that you may go round again with your bottle until the end of September. You may find sometimes that toads and bats poach on your preserves.

Another way to secure specimens of moths is to make a moth trap. Our diagram gives a plan of it, that is a representation of it as seen from above if we look down at it with the lid off. A, B, C, D is a box. It may be made for the purpose, or a soap box or other case may be purchased from the grocer for a few coppers. E, F, and G are panes of glass, held in grooves. H is another pane of glass which comes up to the lid, and cuts the box into two unequal parts. J is the reflector of a lighted lamp placed in front of it. There will need to be a hole in the lid over the lamp, and a flower pot upside down may be put over this hole. It is best to have three doors into the larger compartment; one in the lid and one in each of the two sides, K and L, so that two hands may be used in putting the moths that come to the light into pill boxes.