22 HUNTING AMONG THE 



Noctua and Geometrce seem to be very difficult to attract in this 

 way, the only success I have had with them being among the 

 EimoniidLC and BoarmidiE. In practising this method, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to procure the moth quite fresh from the pupa, as 

 she loses her attractive powers after she has flown with her kin- 

 dred. It is needless also to point out that only specimens of the 

 opposite sex can be captured in this way. 



The next methods I wish to mention are, I believe, quite 

 original, as, although I practised them twenty years ago, I have 

 never heard of anyone else having done so. The first of these 

 takes advantage of that marvellous instinct by which the female 

 moth deposits her eggs with unerring certainty on those plants only, 

 the leaves of which are the natural food of the young larvse. I 

 well remember the first experiment I tried in that direction. It 

 was, I think, in the month of June, on the southern slope of the 

 Surrey hills, within a mile of the old town of Reigate. I had 

 taken in the neighbourhood several specimens of Smerinthus 

 ocdiatns, S. tilice, and S. populi; one specimen of Sphinx convolvuli, 

 and of course S. ligustri in plenty ; but D. galii had always eluded 

 my search. It was natural that I should hunt for its food-plant, 

 Galium vcrum, and not finding it in the near neighbourhood, it 

 was perhaps still more natural that I should plant a bed of this 

 strong-scented yellow flower in a sunny corner, in the hope that 

 somehow D. galii might make its home there. The time for this 

 beautiful hawk-moth to fly had arrived, and for several days I 

 watched anxiously for the hoped-for visitant. At last, one after- 

 noon, as the sun was declining, a shadow glided swiftly past me 

 and hovered over the bedstraw. I recognised it immediately, by 

 its flight, as one of the Sphingidce, but, though it was the right 

 size, its bright pink body showed it was not Galii. It was soon 

 lodged in my field-box, a magnificent specimen of Chicrocampa 

 elpeno7'^ a moth I had never seen before in that neighbourhood, 

 and yet before the month was out I had taken on that spot a full 

 set of six of these beautiful insects, together with several speci- 

 mens of C. porcelhis and one of that magnificent flyer, Macro- 

 glossa fuciformis; the last-mentioned Bee-hawk was also quite 

 unknown to that neighbourhood up to that time. Although 1 did 

 not capture D, galii, the result of my first experiment was so 



