194 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



New Mode of Attracting Lepidoptera. We beg to direct the 

 attention of our readers to the following new method of attracting Lepi- 

 doptera, which appears to lie wonderfully successful in France, and trust 

 that it will be tried next year in this country. We translate the account 

 from Les Petites Nouvellcs'EntomoIogiques Xo. 37, page 148 : -" Among the 

 various methods employed in the collection of Lepidoptera, the most 

 successful, both as regards the quantity and freshness of the specimens 

 which it enables one to procure, and as regards the number and rarity of 

 species — the most successful, we say — is that which consists in employing 

 some bait for the attraction of Lepidoptera. Everyone knows, indeed, 

 the mode of pursuit indicated by the title of "sugaring" (micllee), and no 

 one is ignorant how very productive it is. But this method is not the 

 only one which consists in the employment of baits, and it is by no means 

 the most productive. There is one other in particular, which is only 

 known to some Entomologists, who are unwilling to divulge, even to 

 their friends, the secret of the richness of their collection. One of our 

 colleagues tells us that he had seen this mode of collection practised for 

 some years, but without being able to obtain the secret of it. He saw a 

 large quantity of nocturnal Lepidoptera taken in this way, and among 

 them some rare species. 



•'This plan consists in suspending to trees, by means of twine, some 

 apples half dried in an oven, known in commerce by the name of 'pommes 

 au four, poultries tapeesj etc. These apples diffuse a strong odour of 

 Rcincttc, an abnormal odour of some fruits in this state of desiccation. 

 From twilight, the Lepidoptera came hovering in swarms about this bait, 

 which, after a little while, was literally covered with Noctuadoe, Geometers, 

 etc., in a complete state of immobility. The collector had nothing more 

 to do than to plunge the apple into a wide-necked bottle, charged with 

 Cyanide of Potassium to kill them. He visited in this manner all his 

 baits, and collected in half an hour more than he had collected in a week 

 by means of ' sugaring.' 



" Some Entomologists, having discovered the ingredient by means of 

 which they communicated this abnormal odour to apples, and being more 

 desirous of benefitting their colleagues, and aiding the progress of science, 

 than of preserving a monopoly of certain captures, have communicated, to 

 us the result of their investigations, and we are happy to make it known 





