l62 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, '14 



Both of the authors are still somewhat puzzled over the 

 scarcity of Catocalas one day and it may be, their great 

 abundance the very next. On damp, sultry days, insects fairly 

 swarmed in the valleys, not only Catocalae, but other winged 

 hexapods, while on close, hot days the moths were usually 

 abundant and low on the trees everywhere. On cool or high- 

 windy days few moths were to be seen, high or low. The 

 puzzle is what becomes o"f all the Catos on such days. After 

 all, isn't it barely possible that one year is quite as prolific of 

 moths as another and the supposed great abundance of some 

 years is merely the result of weather conditions that drive the 

 moths to the forest and low on the trees? At least, this will 

 account for the abundance or scarcity on certain days. Another 

 point, in observation on one species, namely, lacrymosa, that 

 this moth fluctuates in numbers from day to day, being fairly 

 common one day and almost totally absent the next, under the 

 same weather conditions. It is true, they may be high in the 

 trees and always fairly common during their season, but this 

 is hardly probable. One can imagine that they migrate from 

 place to place in the woods. The Junior Author found that 

 some species rare in the daytime were rather common at night, 

 as she sugared. The Dodges found that true of amatrix here 

 some years ago. Now, amatri.v is a rare moth by daylight at 

 Louisiana, but not uncommon at bait in the late summer eve- 

 nings. 



It was interesting to find, this summer, that several species 

 of Catocala feed at flowers and the observation was the result 

 of the accidental finding of the pollen grains of Asclepias 

 cornuti adhering to the legs of innubens, epione and residua. 



Of female Catocalae, imprisoned in paper sacks for eggs, 

 numbers of retecta, residua, palaeogama, habilis, neogama and 

 vidua lived a month, supplied with crushed or bruised grapes 

 for food and with a change of air and food every day. Some 

 of these prisoners, fairly fresh, laid no eggs, while battered 

 specimens sometimes laid hundreds. Some specimens hardly 

 survived a week, dying with no apparent excuse. 



In the forest, Catocala viduata proved to be easy game, 



