364: TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



pronuba, Linn., Hadena oleracea, Linn., and Euplexia lucipara^ 

 Linn. Some of these Moths rest on the flowers and suck the 

 sweets at their leisure. 



Of the Ivy I have not had much experience; but among 

 EngUsh entomologists it has a great reputation. Here is what 

 Sir John Lubbock says regarding it : — 



" Araliace^. — The only European species belonging to this 

 order is the common Ivy {Kedera Helix). It is proterandrous, 

 and is much visited by flies and wasps." Nothing is said of the 

 great numbers of Moths that nightly visit the plant while in 

 blossom. I read recently in the Entomologist the grumble of 

 one collector who had only managed to obtain a dozen Cerastis 

 spadicea, Hiib., and half-a-dozen each of Cerastis vaccinii, Linn., 

 and Scopelosoma satellitia, Linn., as the result of an evening's 

 work at Ivy. Only 24 insects, and in the month of October ! 



In all my experience of Moth-collecting, I only once found a 

 plant which does not yield nectar, attracting insects. That plant 

 was the Elder, Sambucus nigra, Linn. In Wicklow, in 1892, 

 I wQrked some bushes of Elder which grew on the garden wall 

 of a ruined cottage, situated on the coast, two miles to the 

 south of the town. The perfume of the flowers could be felt for 

 a considerable distance. Noctuse (principally of two species, 

 Noctua c-nigrum, Linn., and Hadena dentina, Esp.) were flying 

 about the flowers in considerable numbers, even occasionally 

 resting on them. Some nights later, at Drogheda, I tried Elder 

 blossom without seeing a single Moth, and I have tried it 

 repeatedly since with the same result. 



Honeysuckle (Lonicera Periclymenum, Linn.) is undoubtedly 

 attractive, and emits a very sweet smell in the evening. 

 Like the Bramble, it is difficult to work, owing to the situa- 

 tions in which it grows, and I can only speak with certainty of 

 two species visiting it, viz., Mamestra fitrva, Hiib., and Thyatira 

 batis, Linn. The occurrence of the latter species at flowers is a 

 little curious, for all its affinities are with the Bombyces, and the 

 tongue does not appear to be very well developed. Although I 

 only mention these two, yet I have seen many insects, evidently 

 of many different species, at Honeysuckle flowers. 



By shining the lantern on the umbels of Heracleutn 

 Sphondylium, Linn., while returning late at night from sugaring 



