THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 33 



NOTES ON COLLECTING "AT LIGHT." 



BY A. W. HANHAM, WINNIPEG, MAN. 



Until last year (1897), owing to the lack of suitable surroundings, I 

 had made no attempt at systematic collecting " at light." Now, as the 

 result of this one season's capture, I am firmly convinced that this method 

 of collecting is the very best way in which to make a large collection 

 quickly and to secure in abundance species hitherto rarely met with or 

 entirely new. For all night-flying species no other way of collecting has 

 ever proved so profitable with me, and a short account of my experiences, 

 with notes of some of the captures made, may be of interest. To begin 

 with, this was my fourth collecting season in Manitoba, but until this year 

 the good things taken at light were few and far between. Locality is 

 everything, and my surroundings in previous years consisted of too much 

 brick and mortar and too little of nature's clothing. At the end of May 

 this year I moved to Fort Rouge, a suburb of Winnipeg, situated between 

 the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Formerly the whole of this was " bush," 

 with some good timber along the river banks. I am glad to say that a 

 goodly portion of Fort Rouge is still " bush," with here and there a little 

 clearing, sufficient to allow of a residence or so ; sometimes just enough 

 only for the house, which when the trees are in full foliage may be com- 

 pletely shut in. Where I live the place is more settled, but still plenty of 

 thick bush about, here and there, if only in small pieces. In June my 

 yard (out of politeness perhaps it should be styled garden) was full of 

 wild rose bushes, the flowers of which adorned our tables and perfumed 

 our rooms for more than a month. The children stepped outside the 

 back gate to pick flowers and wild strawberries ; at the side of the house 

 and along the roadway in front on both sides, white clover was everywhere 

 in profusion, and the air was laden with the scent. And yet the road is 

 block-paved, and the electric cars pass along it, and a ride of eight minutes 

 on my wheel will take me to my office in the heart of this city of 40,000 

 or more people. 



I may say here that all my collecting " at light " was done from an 

 upstairs window — -that of my sanctum — facing nearly west ; at one side of 

 the window is a small poplar, and on the other, further away, close to the 

 house is a good-sized oak tree, denuded of most of its boughs, and a few 

 other small trees. What will som.e day (all too soon) be a road along the 

 side of the house is still covered with bushes, with here and there a tree. 

 To the right looking out of the window are three arc lights, all within 



