28 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



After the first of August we discarded the pill boxes, as it was 

 deemed now too late in the season to start new life-history cul 

 tures, and Dr. Dyar was sufficiently occupied with caring for those 

 already obtained. It was noticed that many moths fell from the 

 sugar into the grass and onto the ground and were lost while we 

 were engaged in collecting the others. Mr. Caudell, however, 

 soon contrived a way to prevent this. A semicircle of springy 

 wire was sewed to the top of a cloth funnel about one foot in 

 diameter the bottom of which, furnished with a strong elastic, 

 fitted tightly around the mouth of a large cyanide jar of extra 

 strength. On approaching a sugared tree, pole or stump the un- 

 wired side of the funnel was made to fit closely around it just be 

 low the lower moths. A little jarring and blowing, or a light 

 brushing with the fingers would precipitate them all into the fun 

 nel and down into the cyanide jar below. The jar was then 

 corked, and as soon as the moths became quiet they were trans 

 ferred to a storage cyanide jar and packed lightly between layers 

 of cotton. A canvas apron with a number of pockets, devised 

 by Mr. Caudell, served admirably the purpose of carrying a con 

 venient number of cyanide jars so as to be immediately available. 

 On the warmer evenings when there was considerable moisture 

 in the air there seemed to be a greater flight of moths than when 

 it was cold and dry ; and in moist weather we noticed that it was 

 unnecessary to put on fresh sugar every evening, for just as many, 

 or even more, moths were captured when the sugar was a day, 

 or even two days, old. 



Moths were by no means the only insects attracted to the sugar. 

 Aspec\esoiCeutop/u7us was frequently taken, and daddy-long-legs 

 (Phalangidea) were attracted in some numbers. One species 

 of Chrysopa was often taken at the sugar, as also a few small 

 caddisflies and some specimens of a longicorn beetle, Pachyta 

 spurca LeConte. Some of our sugared stumps became so thickly 

 infested with ants that other insects would not alight on them. 

 We noticed, also, in several places where a stump was sugared 

 but a few inches above the ground, that a large toad or a tree 

 frog was nearly always stationed at its base to capture the moths 

 which alighted within its reach. One especial stump seemed to 

 be a favorite, for as many as four toads were sometimes noticed 

 beside it. 



As the nights were nearly always cool there was never any such 

 flight of moths to light as we are accustomed to in more southern 

 localities around Washington, D. C., for instance ; but a small 

 number could be secured by going the rounds of the electric 

 lights in Kaslo and visiting the electric-light plant at the creek. 

 The Bombycoid moths, which are not attracted to sugar, were 

 mostly taken at light. Toward the close of the season we rigged 



